History is Doomed to Repeat Itself
by whatever55
Summary: set after season 7 finale... She knows what it's like to be left behind and yet she does it anyway...
1. Chapter 1

**Ok. So the season finale really annoyed me… for being a genius Brennan can be really stupid… I'm also really tired of the whole notion that people are going by that Brennan's the one who's really suffering and Booth should be thankful and understanding of her leaving and keeping themselves safe… I had always promised myself that I wasn't going to ever jump on the bandwagon of finale stories but after reading so many 'poor Brennan' type stories I just had to put this one out there since she really annoyed me this episode and in a lot of the episodes this season… Let me know what you think...**

**So this one is a little of what's got to be going through Booth's head after...**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Bones Brennan would have been smarter in the season finale and throughout the season…**

**I'm also hoping to get the next chapter of "Message in the Circles" up later this week if any of you read that one.**

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He collapsed onto the steps of the Church next to the empty carrier. He could only keep seeing the car drive away from him. It was a sight burned into his brain that just kept playing on a loop through his head.

He was completely numb. He didn't feel anything except for the feeling of the cold hard ground seeping through his pants. He hasn't felt so numb since his sniper days when he had to pretend people were targets to do his job.

He wasn't really seeing anything anymore either except for the car driving away from him with Christine and Brennan.

His mind was empty. He just kept seeing them driving away from him. He hardly noticed when it started to get dark, still seeing the car driving away in his mind. It was going to be a long time before that image would stop haunting him; if it ever did.

He eventually realized how dark it was and knew he should head back to the house. He got up from the steps and quickly collapsed again when his legs failed to hold himself up from the exhaustion he was feeling because of the emptiness. He gave it a few moments before rising again slowly. This time his legs supported him, barely but they did. He picked up the empty carrier and made his way to the street to hail a cab to bring him home, not that it was much of a home right now to him.

When a cab pulled up to the curb he climbed into the back with the empty carrier and gave the driver the address. He shut down his mind again so that he couldn't break down or feel anything. He didn't notice when the driver pulled up in front of the house—because that's all it was now. It wasn't a home at all when he was alone—until he heard the driver speaking to him and telling him that they were there. He took money out of his pocket, not paying attention to how much it actually was, handed it up to the driver and got out, taking the empty carrier with him.

He went in the door and dropped the carrier by it before moving to the couch and lying down on it. He didn't really want to go any further into the house and he knew he wouldn't be sleeping anyway. He also knew he should probably call Flynn, but he didn't have the energy to do so. It may make him look worse later but Flynn would find out soon enough anyway that she was gone and he knew he was in no shape for an interrogation right now. He knew nothing and he knew it but they would never believe him anyway even if he did call them. They would have said that was just part of the plan.

He was just lying there staring at the ceiling and now he couldn't stop the thoughts running through his head.

He was angry. He didn't want to be, but he was.

He was angry at her.

If she really had wanted to run he should have been with them. She should never have shut him out… again. They should have stayed and fought it. She should have trusted him.

Hasn't he proven to her enough that he could keep them safe? Instead she goes off on her own making her look even more guilty and taking Christine with her. She's a fugitive and he knows she'll probably be charged with kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a minor and those charges have the potential to hold even if he didn't want to press them—which he wouldn't—but it wouldn't matter; they'd have to be pressed because she's a fugitive.

She's now on the run. Pelant can trace her easily. She's famous for crying out loud. Her face is known. There's no way she can stay hidden. She let her father convince her that it was best to run. What are they both idiots?

He's angry with Max for convincing her that running is the best choice for them, for tearing them apart and not talking to him first. He always thinks running is the answer. Him running screwed her over once. It's likely to screw her over again, but this time it wouldn't just be her being screwed over it would be Christine and him too.

He should have slugged Max when he had the chance.

She listened to him and trusted him even though she didn't even want him near Christine in the first place after that park incident. Now she suddenly trusts him to keep her safe more than him.

Was she ever going to trust him? After all this time it didn't seem likely to him anymore.

He's angry with himself.

Now that it has happened he should have seen it coming and he's furious with himself for not catching on before.

It should have been obvious to him. She's good at leaving him. It's one of the things she's best at along with Forensic Anthropology and writing.

Now that he thinks back though it's obvious that she was going to leave.

She had no interest in coming to the baptism and then suddenly she did. She's always mocking him in his beliefs and she suddenly wants to take part in it. She hadn't even wanted her to be baptized in the first place. She decided to 'let him' if he gave in to how she wanted to give birth. That should have been his first clue that she was planning on something and that it was going to hurt.

His second clue was when she had told him that they weren't only together because of Christine and that she loves him. That definitely should have raised the flags. Sure, he knows she loves him—or at least he thinks she does—but they never say it too often to the other. She seems to only really say it when she's hurt him or in this case about to hurt him and knows that she's about to hurt him. First there was the house issue where she couldn't see why he thought they should live together and then why he wasn't just going to move into HER place. Then there was this time where she decides that it's easier to not trust him and leave him again.

He wonders why it's so easy for her to keep leaving him behind: first Guatemala, then Maluku, now this. At least the first two times he knew where she was and she didn't take their child with her. Now he loses one of his children too. What's Parker going to say when he finds out that there's no telling if or when they'll ever come back. Is Parker going to be mad with him for not being able to keep them safe or for not seeing that they were leaving until it was too late? Is he going to be mad at Brennan for taking away his baby sister and running? We don't see each other nearly enough though so will he even find out that they left?

He now finds himself questioning how he can be called dad. He hardly feels like one, especially now. He missed out on most of Parker's life. He didn't think he was going to miss out on his daughter's life too, but thinking about it now he wonders if he was ever really a part of it to begin with. Sure he was there, but it was Brennan making all the decisions. She made the appointment with the financial advisor and it was only casually mentioned to him, thankfully this time before the actual appointment, unlike with the ultrasound when he found out at the crime scene that they were having a girl like it was just a normal everyday occurrence to her and not significant and that it didn't matter if he was there or not. She decided to 'let him' baptize her if he gave in to how she wanted to give birth. She decided on the caregivers and even though she never fully said it he knew she blamed him for the incident in the park with Max for having convinced her to let Max take care of his granddaughter.

Could he really call himself a father at all?

And now she's gone… again. This time with their daughter. When will he learn to never get too comfortable with his life? He should know by now that when he does it always ends up in flames and he gets burnt. This time is probably the worst burn of them all.

He wished he could shut off his mind and go back to being empty again. He didn't want to be angry with her but he couldn't accept the fact that she ran again and that after all this time still didn't trust him and decide to trust her father who she's never trusted before. He really wanted to go back to feeling empty. It was better than angry or depressed.

He was tired of staring at the ceiling so threw one of his arms over his eyes and squeezed them shut.

He saw the car driving away from him again and snapped his lids open, uncovering his face.

It was going to be a long night. It was going to be a lot of long nights…

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**Hope you liked... let me know what you think... right now I have this set as a one-shot but if you want more leave a review and ask... I've got a couple ideas for things that could be added and will take requests with it too...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow… I'm amazed by the response to this… Thank you to everyone who reviewed and wanted to see more and to everyone who put it on their favorites or alerts list… I've got some ideas for this but will be writing as I post unlike what I normally do so I can't guarantee how long this will be or how often updates will come but hopefully they won't take too long…**

**WARNING: I will also warn now before you continue with this. This will likely NOT have a perfectly happy B&B ending. Will they be rude and nasty to each other in the end? No. But will they be 100% together and happy? Probably not. They will at least be on the same page and accepting of what their relationship turned into. Will Booth do things that will potentially piss people off? Yes. Will Brennan? Yes. If this is going to bother you I suggest you turn back now and just let it stay as a one-shot for you. If you want to see future tension between Booth and Brennan and how they attempt to work things during Pelant and in the aftermath, good, bad, or otherwise then feel free to continue on...**

**Let me know what you think!**

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He became aware of a pounding on the front door. He noticed the lightness of the living room and for a moment couldn't remember why he was on the couch. Then everything came flooding back to him again and he could see the car all over again. He remembered finally getting back to the house and collapsing on the couch where he was consumed by his thoughts.

He realized he must have at least zoned out for a while. He knew from how exhausted he felt that he never actually achieved falling asleep. He hadn't expected to either.

The pounding on the door got louder. He dragged his body off of the couch, cracking most of his joints as he did so. He felt like he aged a couple of years overnight.

He dragged himself to the door slowly, trying to loosen his stiff muscles even just a little.

When he got to the door he opened it easily and without having to unlock it. He realized he must have forgotten to last night but couldn't seem to find the energy to care that he had forgotten something so mundane.

The person's fist was still raised and moving to hit the door again when it hit air and the person realized that the door was open. She started to speak, not really fully looking at him initially.

"'Bout—" she cut off her sentence as she finally took in his appearance. He was still wearing his suit from the day before and it was completely wrinkled. "You look like shit," she said in surprise.

"Thanks, Cam," he said sarcastically as she came inside.

"Are you ok?" she asked him after he shut the door but continued to face it. He turned around to face her and she noticed just how dark the circles were under his eyes.

"What are you doing here, Cam?" he asked. She could tell that he was trying to avoid her question and watched as he entered the kitchen.

"Seeley?" Cam asked him, knowing that something was up and that he did not want to address it. She could see that his guard was up too which she hadn't seen from him in a long time. She almost didn't recognize the man standing in front of her.

"You hungry?" he asked, moving around the kitchen, clearly just trying to keep distance between the two of them and clearly not looking for anything specific. "Coffee?" He was clearly trying to avoid her question too.

"No. I'm good. What's going on, Seeley?" She watched as he braced his arms on the counter and kept his back to her.

"Was there a reason you dropped by?" She sighed, knowing that it was something serious that was bothering him by him not responding at all in the normal way to her calling him by his first name. She decided to play it his way for now though.

"Agent Flynn called the lab. He's been calling your cell phone and Brennan's all morning. I tried a few times myself and then came over." Booth realized he must have never taken his cell phone off of silence after the baptism that felt like it took place so long ago. "He's got the arrest warrant and the revised search warrant for the house. I'm sorry, Seeley. He also says though that he doesn't want to be forced into using the arrest warrant and it would look better for her if she came in herself. He said he'll give you guys until the afternoon before he'd be forced to use it. I'm really sorry," she told him, wanting to move closer, but unsure of how he'd respond to it. She saw his shoulders drop even more but hadn't thought it was possible. He walked to the table and sat down heavily leaning his elbows on the table and rubbing his hands over his face.

"He's a little late for that," he told her. Cam noticed that his voice lacked emotion. She was worried. He seemed to just be empty. She hadn't seen him like that in a really long time, but she was also having difficulty comprehending what he had said.

"What?…" He brought his hands away from his face and stared at her. The lack of anything on his face startled her.

"You heard me, Cam," he said, simply. "She's gone. She left. She took Christine with her. She left me right after the baptism that she didn't even want to go to. I should have seen it coming, I mean…" he shook his head trailing off. "She just…"

"Seeley…" Cam had no idea what to say to him. He just shook his head, hating the compassion he could hear in her voice.

"Before you ask, no I don't know where she went. Yes, I realize that no one will believe me when I say that anyway. Yes, I realize that it now looks worse for her since she ran. Yes, I realize she made a bad situation worse by taking Christine with her because now the FBI will want to add kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child—my child—to the charges against her and we both know that it's quite possible for those to hold. And yes, I realize that she was trying to help me by me having no knowledge of what she was planning but we both know that no one will really believe I had no knowledge so that doesn't matter anyway," he said standing up from the table and finally taking off his suit jacket from the day before and draping it over the chair. "Call Flynn up and let him know. Can you wait here for him to arrive with the search warrant and let them in when they get here? Make sure the information is right first this time though," he told her as he moved to the front door.

"It'll look better on you if you're the one to call him," she told him.

"We both know that's not true. He'll just figure that it was part of the plan and I really don't have the energy to deal with an interrogation from him right now," he said as his hand landed on the doorknob.

"Where are you going?"

"Don't know… Can't be far though since I don't exactly have a car right now since I've been suspended and Max tampered with my car at the church so I couldn't follow. I just got to get out of here," he said opening the door.

"You know she loves you," Cam told him, trying to get even a little emotion back into him, whether it be positive or negative, she just wanted something. What she got she wasn't prepared for however.

"I really don't know anymore," he shook his head. "I really don't…" he left, closing the door silently behind him. Her heart broke for him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow… I'm amazed by the continuing response to this… Thank you to everyone who reviewed and wanted to see more and to everyone who put it on their favorites or alerts list… I've got some ideas for this but will be writing as I post unlike what I normally do so I can't guarantee how long this will be or how often updates will come but hopefully they won't take too long…**

**Ok. So I warned last chapter that they were BOTH going to do things to piss people off and apparently some people missed the message.**

**I received an anonymous review last chapter from 'Iona' that I feel I need to respond to here. You said that Brennan has nothing but her daughter and Max. Fine, I'll concede that point, but it was HER choice that made her lose everything else. Booth lost everything too though. The difference is that it was HER choice that made him lose everything because like hell will the FBI allow him to go back to working Pelant if they even un-suspend him because he will be looked at for being a possible accomplice to Brennan's leaving. You also said that you were tired of fics making out that Booth was a victim. I don't know what you've been reading but most of the stuff I've seen of post finale stuff is Booth basically dropping to his knees just so happy that they're finally home and not angry at all. Sorry, I don't see it. He is not a doormat that can keep taking her leaving time after time after time. As I also said they will BOTH do things to piss people off so I have no clue how you think I am making Booth a victim. He's hurt right now and clearly has a right to be. She made a mistake and left. AGAIN. That doesn't mean though that he's going to avoid making mistakes and end up hurting her in the process too. I have more I could say to your review but I will leave it here so as to not continue to waste everyone else's time.**

**Well after that lovely response to that anonymous review, I just have one more thing to say before I start the chapter. Feel free to leave criticism, but at least have the decency to sign in so that I can respond to you personally and not waste anyone else's time by responding in the author's note in a chapter. I love all of the positive feedback I am getting too though and thank everyone who has been giving it.**

**This chapter is also a little different than the first two. Booth decided he was a little too depressed to cooperate with me so we're going to visit the squints this chapter. Maybe he'll be more cooperative next chapter. Let me know what you think of this chapter!**

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She called Flynn up and told him to come over and that she would explain when he got there. She also called the lab where Hodgins answered the phone and told him to get the team over here. She didn't explain why yet to them either. How could she when she didn't fully understand what was going on.

She felt for him and wished she could help him more than she could right now, but she knew she didn't have much to offer him and that he didn't want comfort.

She wasn't as sure though that Brennan would be put in jail for taking Christine with her.

Brennan would have to survive this ordeal first and when she got back she might just have the strong enough urge to kill her herself for what she's putting Booth through. She knew as much as she wanted to she wouldn't though, or at least she'd like to believe that she's strong enough to ignore that desire.

She couldn't believe she gave him the advice all those years ago to be sure of his feelings for her because if he changed his mind she wouldn't do well. She should have realized it went both ways. She could forgive Brennan for Maluku—after a while anyway, after she made things right—but she didn't think she'd ever forgive her for this one.

She heard what Booth didn't say.

Brennan didn't trust him. She trusted her father instead who she never trusted before and everyone knows it.

She saw the Jeffersonian's van pull up in front of the house and knew she had to figure out some way to tell them. She just had no idea how to do so.

She decided to face the music, opened the door, and went outside to meet them. She watched as Hodgins, Angela, and Wendell climbed out of the van. She knew they were going to have questions that she wasn't sure how to answer, so she decided to get to business first as she approached them.

"We have to wait for Flynn with the search warrant. Then we've got to sweep the place, floor to ceiling, wall to wall, collect everything regarding Pelant."

"And Booth and Bren know that we're about to come in to search the place?" Angela asked.

"Booth told me to call Flynn and handle things here. He asked me to oversee gathering everything." Angela just stared at her since she wasn't really answering the question. "Booth knows about the search and arrest warrant."

"Cam, I'm not tearing their place apart looking for evidence that we know won't be there because Bren didn't kill Ethan!"

"Maybe not, but she left which makes her look more guilty!" she snapped, tired of Angela's persistence. She watched as Angela took a step back, eyes wide from her outburst. She wished she cared that she just startled her, but she was at the end of her rope with this case. She wanted to be mad at him for putting her in the position to tell everyone, but knew why he couldn't be the one to tell them himself. Once she had started on her rant she couldn't stop either. "She took Christine with her too! Not one word to Booth! She made it seem like she actually wanted to be at the baptism but it was so she could run off while he went to go get the car that Max tampered with so that it wouldn't start! She's gone and even if we get the murder charges dropped she can't avoid the kidnapping charges or the charges of endangering a minor! We both know that Booth would do anything for her and she's too stupid to see it so she makes a bad situation worse. Booth knows the system. These new charges will hold. She screwed herself over because she still refuses to trust him!" She saw that Angela had taken another few steps back during her rant and that Hodgins and Wendell were staring at her wide eyed. Now she felt a little guilty for taking her frustration with Brennan out on them. "Sorry," she apologized. "I just… you didn't see him this morning…"

"Where is he now?" Wendell asked.

"No idea. He went for a walk. He didn't look like he slept much, if at all, last night though so I doubt he's going to go far."

"Isn't he going to need to talk to Flynn?" Hodgins asked.

"At some point, but what he says won't really matter."

"What who says about what won't matter?" Flynn asked coming over to the group.

"Do you have the search warrant?" she asked ignoring his question.

"I need to give it to Booth. I also have the arrest warrant since she didn't come in herself."

"Booth asked me to handle checking the search warrant here and you're a little too late to use the warrant. She left yesterday after their daughter's baptism because you weren't willing to look at other suspects. You decided that all the evidence pointed to her and wouldn't even consider Pelant really because of that stupid monitor." She snatched the search warrant out of his hand and looked it over noting that everything was unfortunately correct. "Hodgins and Angela, can you both go in and start collecting. I'll come in a minute." Hodgins and Angela quickly went inside wanting to avoid more wrath from her. She couldn't blame them really.

"Where is Booth?" Agent Flynn asked. "I need to question him."

"He went for a walk. No, I don't know where."

"I need to question him. He probably knows where she is and you let him walk away." Flynn was pissed. She didn't care though and let him know it.

"If he knew where she was do you really think he would be here and before you answer think carefully because that will answer your question of whether or not you need to question him and put him through more crap or not." She watched as he opened his mouth and quickly cut him off. "Think! Use your brain for a change, Agent Flynn! If you say yes to he would be here, that it was part of his plan, then you don't need to question him because you've already decided he's in on it and he's an accomplice and therefore he wouldn't tell you anyway where she was anyway. If you answer no, then clearly you understand that he knows nothing and therefore you don't need to question him either. Are we clear! You don't need to put him through anymore crap right now. I SUGGEST that you do something useful and go to the church where he had his daughter baptized yesterday; where his car still is from someone tampering with it, someone being Max, so that you can collect the evidence there too. I SUGGEST that you take Wendell with you so that he can look at the car himself," she told him, making it clear that they weren't really suggestions but things she was expecting from him.

"Dr. Saroyan?" Wendell asked, sounding confused.

"You were working on that bus in that shop when Brennan left for Maluku. You've got to be able to identify issues in a car's engine fairly easily," she told him.

"Come on," Flynn told Wendell and turning to walk to his car. He completely ignored her. She couldn't blame him after she just laid into him. Wendell just looked to her briefly before shaking his head and slowly following Flynn. He clearly wasn't looking forward to the ride to the church but understood it was necessary. She wished she didn't need to send him with Flynn but she needed to stay here. Wendell could manage.

She watched them climb into the car and drive away. She stayed in front of the house for a few minutes, looking down the block, hoping to see him returning. She didn't but she wasn't really expecting to either. She took out her cell phone and made a call. She hung up after their conversation and looked down the block one more time, still hoping to see him coming down the block. She didn't see him at all. She turned to go inside to help collect any evidence that might be there.

She just hoped that he was alright.


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to those of you who actually reviewed last chapter and to those who put the story on their alerts or favorites.**

**Ok, so you know how I said there will be no bashing in this story... Well I lied... there will still be no Brennan and Booth bashing because they both still do things that will piss people off, I'm not playing the blame game with them... but the Flynn bashing was kind of unavoidable so if you actually like the guy well you might not be too happy...**

**I'm guessing with the lack of reviews people weren't too fond of Booth's uncooperativeness last chapter... Don't worry he cooperated this time so we're back to him.**

**Hope you enjoy... Review...Let me know what you think!**

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He started walking down the block away from the building he used to be able to call home. He wasn't even sure he would ever be able to call it home again. Everything seemed to be spiraling out of control.

He didn't know if they could last this time or not.

He knew he loved her and that would never stop, but you can't have a relationship without trust and she still doesn't trust him. Will she ever?

He continued to walk slowly with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He had no destination in mind. He just needed to get away from the prison he used to call home.

He felt a little guilty for leaving Cam to deal with the mess, but he knew that she would understand why he couldn't stay there and deal with it himself. He still was going to try to make sure that he made it up to her at some point.

He continued down the road, not paying attention to where he was going as his mind continued to betray him and haunt him with the same thoughts that he was having the night before. He just wanted his mind to stop and shut up.

He was still angry but now he was just depressed too. It was finally hitting him that this was all real. His daughter was gone. Brennan was gone. Nothing would be the same again and he knew it.

The thoughts running through his head were playing on an endless loop, but they all always went back to one thought which he had to take as fact.

She didn't trust him. But that thought didn't stop there. It continued.

She never would completely.

He wished he could say with certainty that they would be ok after all of this was over. The romantic in him wanted to say that it would be. The realist in him knew it wasn't likely.

A relationship will only work with trust. She clearly thinks she's still on her own. He wasn't sure anymore that she'd ever believe otherwise.

He's not sure he still wanted to convince her. It was draining to keep trying to. He's tried to give her proof over and over again that he's there for her and she still doesn't believe it.

He wished she had given him the choice of going with her or staying behind. He's stolen evidence from a crime scene before to protect her. He's held his gun down a gang member's throat before to keep her safe: granted she doesn't know that. He's taken a bullet to save her. Doesn't she know by now that he'd do anything for her to keep her safe even if it was going to risk his career?

He saw a mostly empty space in front of him other than grass and a few large trees. He walked over to one of the trees and turned around leaning heavily against it before sliding down to the ground. He leaned his head against the tree and shut his eyes. He quickly snapped them open again when that damn car filled his vision again. He wondered if it would ever stop filling his vision every time he shut his eyes.

He wanted to just shut down until this mess was over. He wanted to be able to do something too, but he knew that he wouldn't be allowed to. He knew that he was going to be questioned about where Brennan and his daughter where and even though he had no clue he knew they wouldn't believe him.

Why would they? Everyone knows that he would do anything to keep her safe, even lie to the government. Everyone except her apparently.

His mind continued to race with his thoughts and his anger and depression.

Something else was beginning to consume his mind too. He didn't like what it was either.

He had the feeling that they were missing something, something big that would help to start to clear Brennan's name. He had no idea what it was but it had to be there. The question was where was there and what was it that they were missing.

He also had a really bad feeling in his gut. He wished he knew what was causing it. Was it Pelant that was causing it? Was his gut telling him that something happened to his baby girl? Was it even something else? He didn't know and it worried him.

"Agent Booth!" he heard a woman's voice call. He picked his head up off of the tree trunk and looked to the street and the car sitting at the curb.

Agent Genny Shaw was sitting in the driver's seat. He was confused to see her there. She got out of the car as he stood up.

"What are you doing here, Shaw?"

"Agent Flynn called." He couldn't help but roll his eyes and he saw Genny smile slightly. "That was about my reaction when he called too, sir. He blabbed about Dr. Brennan and was very annoyed at the fact that you weren't home to be questioned and demanded that you be brought in for questioning… you know the whole nine yards being brought in as a suspect yada-yada crap, sir… I managed to convince him to let me try to find you and convince you to come down to your office and instead of immediately going into interrogation to handle it in your office. He wasn't too happy with that until a few of the other agents stepped in and told him that they weren't doing his dirty work because he's got a stick up his ass… of course not in those exact words, sir, but everyone's thinking he's trying to make you and Dr. Brennan look bad and for you to lose your position. They're guessing that he wants your job. He only gave in if we agreed that if our way doesn't work we do serve a warrant to bring you in. Please, sir, we really don't want to serve that warrant."

He sighed. At least he had most of his agents backing him up. He was hoping that the news wasn't going to reach the office that quickly but wasn't really surprised that Flynn did blab that quickly. He knew he didn't really have a choice.

"Fine," he told her, walking to the car. She quickly followed and climbed into the driver's seat as he climbed into the passenger's seat. He leaned his head against the headrest but was careful to not shut his eyes.

"Do you want a coffee before we head to the office, sir?" Genny asked. He figured she was trying to make it a little easier. He wasn't really interested though and wasn't even sure his stomach would hold anything right now anyway.

"Just drive, Shaw," he told her. She started the car and started the drive to the Hoover. The ride was basically silent, at least to the ears anyway. His thoughts were still racing, making his head start to pound. He wondered how long Flynn was going to keep questioning him and why he was even bothering because he knew that Flynn was already going to have decided he was lying.

He shut his eyes again and this time welcomed the sight of the car driving away from him since it brought back the numbness for a little while and let his mind shut off. The emptiness, he decided, was much better than the pain and anger.

It had hardly started it seemed and he just wanted this day to be over. He hadn't realized though how late it actually was until they pulled up in front of the Hoover and he saw that the sun was getting ready to set.

How many more days would he be longing to hold his baby girl in his arms…


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and to those who put this on their favorites or alerts list...**

**Booth was a little uncooperative again so we're going to be visiting the squints again, but it's also important to the story... let me know what you think...**

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After spending most of the day at the house collecting evidence the team was back at the lab going over what they took from the house that may or may not indicate Brennan's guilt or innocence.

She was sitting in the chair behind her desk. She was thankful that there really wasn't anything for her to look over right now since they didn't have a body to look over. She was still worried about him too. After they finished combing through the house for every little piece of evidence they could find she told Angela and Hodgins to head back to the lab and that she was going to look for him to make sure he was alright. After searching for a while she gave up and tried to call him. His cell phone still went to voicemail. She hoped he was ok but since she couldn't find him she found a cab and went back to the lab herself.

She was startled by Wendell coming into her office and was even more startled by the look on his face. She wasn't sure if she had ever seen that type of look on his face before and wasn't really sure what it was either.

"Dr. Saroyan, can I ask a favor?" She blinked in surprise for a moment because the look on his face was not one she would associate with asking her for a favor. His voice was fairly polite but the look on his face was close to the opposite.

"Um, sure?" she said, having absolutely no idea what he wanted to ask and a little fearful of what it might be.

"Never send me out there alone with that guy again," Wendell told her forcefully.

"Agent Flynn?" she questioned, wanting to make sure they were on the same page.

"No the other piece of shit that is trying to turn Booth into an accomplice," Wendell said sarcastically. Then he remembered who he was actually speaking to and smiled, clearly embarrassed. "Sorry, can we forget my exact words please?" She smiled.

"I see you don't like him either."

"I thought we were going to be needing to investigate another murder briefly. I was hoping Dr. Brennan and you had taught me enough that I wouldn't get caught." She winced.

"He was that bad?"

"Worse. He was barking orders into his phone the entire time to the FBI to issue a warrant to bring 'the accomplice' in for questioning," he used air quotes at the accomplice and she almost wanted to laugh at the look on his face. It was a mix between disgust for Flynn, shock at how stupid he could be, and annoyance for the same man. She just rolled her eyes. "I don't know who but someone really pissed him off over there because he eventually snapped his phone shut muttering something about agents being useless and not listening when it's clear that Booth is an accomplice and a whole bunch of other nonsense I chose to tune out before I smacked him and lost my internship." This time she did actually laugh briefly.

"Lose your internship over smacking the guy. Hell I probably would have hired you on a permanent basis without a doctorate. Punched him and I probably would have faked you a doctorate and promote you."

"Good to know. Next time I'll be sure to use a fist on him."

"Just make sure I'm there to watch him land on his ass."

"Noted."

"Now did you find anything useful with the car?"

"Maybe. It was tampered with fairly easily. Someone unplugged the battery. Booth could have fixed it easily if he had wanted to after she drove off. I dusted it for fingerprints and brought them to Angela to run through the system. Flynn's already decided though that they'll match Booth and that he's the one to have undone the battery. I tried to point out to him that it wasn't possible for Booth to have unplugged the battery because it would have been too hot after they got there so it would have been needed to be done while Christine was being baptized but he wouldn't listen. Unless we have a second set of prints Flynn's decided he's an accomplice."

"Hey," Angela said sadly from the doorway. "They're his. There weren't any other prints either."

"You're sure?" she asked. Angela just nodded.

"I haven't called Flynn yet."

"I'll call him later. Have you gone over the evidence brought back from the house?"

"I'm still working on the security footage of the master bedroom and nursery. Somehow he made it so that you could see him go into the rooms but then the videos cut out while he's in the room so we have no idea if he did anything in either room. I'm still trying to see if I can recover the footage that was deleted since in the sweep nothing abnormal was found." She nodded and turned back to Wendell.

"You didn't find anything else with the car that proves that Booth couldn't have tampered with it."

"As I said, he couldn't have because after getting there the battery would be too hot. Flynn doesn't seem to care and keeps ignoring that fact. Other than that there's nothing. Max must have used gloves."

"Unbelievable… he wants to keep Booth here by shutting him out of Brennan's plan to leave because he thinks he'd be more useful in the system and he makes it harder for Booth to keep his job by not leaving evidence… If Booth doesn't kick his ass I just might…"

"Why does it seem everyone here is getting less intelligent?" Wendell asked her. She just raised her eyebrow. "Except for you of course, Dr. Saroyan."

"Nice save, Wendell. Is there any way to prove when the battery was unplugged?"

"I don't think so." She nodded. "Go see if Angela could use any help running the stuff we brought back from the house." Wendell nodded and left.

She leaned back slightly in her chair and shut her eyes briefly. This was turning into a huge mess. She was thankful she made the call that she made at the house. If anyone could turn this mess into less of a mess it was the person she had spoken to. She just hoped that they could come up with something good. She decided that she would wait to call Flynn about the fingerprints until tomorrow to hopefully give that person more time to work their magic. She hoped that person would be able to help him.


	6. Chapter 6

He was sitting at his desk, legs outstretched underneath his desk and leaning back slightly. His head was partially draped over the back of his chair, attempting to lean on the top back of the chair. He was starting to get a crick in his neck, but was welcoming the pain. He was at the point where he was exhausted and just wanted to sleep for weeks but was too wound to do so.

He was waiting for that useless piece of skin, Flynn, to show up. He knew that he wanted to question him. He didn't see why he was going to waste both of their time when he was sure to consider him an accomplice anyway.

It was getting even later and the sun had completely set by now. He figured Flynn was trying to make him sweat. He almost wanted to laugh at how that plan of his was definitely backfiring on him. He was just getting more and more pissed with Flynn which was bound to make him be less cooperative when Flynn would finally decide to make an appearance. Shaw was also being really great in keeping his coffee mug filled. He guessed that she could tell if he didn't have enough caffeine in him when Flynn did appear that he was likely to throttle the guy.

He was just staring at the ceiling when he heard a whole bunch of papers be slammed down on his desk. He sat up and saw Caroline standing in front of his desk.

"These forms need your signature, Cherie," she told him.

"Caroline, it's late," he said, noticing that the clock on his computer read that it was a little after 9:00pm. "Can't it wait until a reasonable hour tomorrow? And technically I'm still suspended. I can't sign it anyway," he said, reaching for the forms anyway because he knew that Caroline wouldn't leave until he had.

"It's not for you to sign as an—"

"Oh! Hell no!" he yelled at her, surprising them both slightly when he saw what it was she brought him to sign. "Not happening, Caroline!" He threw the forms back on his desk.

"Hear me out, Cherie. I thought long about how to approach this best after Cam called me from your place and told me what happened. This is the best way to go. Think about it. You sign both of those forms and things look better for you. You file that Brennan kidnapped your daughter and it makes it look less likely that you did help to plan her escape. You then file for full custody of your daughter and it makes it look even less likely because then it says you don't support her leaving with your kid either. Flynn really wouldn't have a leg to stand on in accusing you of being an accomplice if you file these. Plus then we'd be able to separate the cases. Right now we have the case of a fugitive on the run with a baby associated with the Pelant case, Flynn's case. You file about kidnapping; we can create a new case. A fugitive kidnapped a baby, a new case, your case. We can get you working on finding your daughter before Pelant does. While they overlap with how Flynn is screwing over Dr. Brennan no one will see it. He'd still be investigating Brennan and you'd be investigating your daughter's kidnapping. Some of the evidence would just happen to overlap."

He thought about it. She was right and he knew it after she explained it. He really didn't want to, but he needed to be actively doing something to find his daughter. This seemed to make the most sense to him. He took the forms again with a shaking hand and signed them. He handed them back to her and noticed the look on her face. He didn't like it.

"What?" he asked, already dreading the answer.

"I didn't tell you one thing before..." she said hesitating. He knew it was something bad if she was hesitating about it and was dreading it even more. "If Dr. Brennan does make it back with Christine, she may not be able to gain full custody again. It would be up to the two of you to determine how much time she does spend with Christine based upon your relationship with each other but it's likely that a judge won't sign custody back over to her at all because of the kidnapping charge. Either way though she was going to be charged with that though and the judge could theoretically strip her of custody because of that charge even if you didn't file for full custody. It also wouldn't have looked good on you though if you didn't file for full custody and the judge could have possibly declared you unfit to be a father to Christine too if you didn't file for full custody when the mother kidnapped the child." She quickly left before he could yell at her calling over her shoulder that she was bringing these to the judge now and would see him early tomorrow.

Shaw came in a little after Caroline left. She had a fresh coffee with her and swapped it out with the empty cup sitting on his desk.

"Go home, Shaw. Go spend time with your son."

"Sir?" she questioned, clearly not convinced that she wanted to leave him alone. He had to smile slightly.

"I'm not going anywhere, don't worry. I'll be fine here for a couple hours without you babysitting me. Flynn's not here for me to beat the crap out of and probably won't come until tomorrow just to annoy me so you don't have to worry about that. Go home to your son."

"Are you—"

"Go, Shaw!"

"Yes, sir," she turned to leave, but paused for a minute and turned back around.

"Sir, may I?" she asked. He could tell that she wanted to broach something that he may not have been comfortable with. He thought for a moment before nodding to show her that she could continue.

"I can't imagine what must be going through your mind right now with the whole Dr. Brennan and Christine mess. I know if my ex was still in the picture and we were together and he pulled that crap, I would kick his ass to next year, but that's just me. I don't know what you're thinking in terms of your relationship with Dr. Brennan and it's not really my business. What I do know is that I wouldn't stop until my kid is back in my arms. We're all behind you, sir, but we won't find your daughter. You will… sir." She turned around and left without saying anything else.

He suddenly found himself a little more hopeful between Caroline and Shaw. He was still missing holding his baby girl and desperate to see her, but Shaw was positive that he would get her back. He just hoped that she was right. He didn't want to get his hopes up too high though because he was afraid of them crashing down around him.

He leaned back in his chair again and shut his eyes.

He saw the car flood his vision again as it drove away from him. It still hurt like hell to see again but he eventually fell into a light doze in his chair while wondering if tomorrow would bring him one step closer to finding his baby girl.


	7. Chapter 7

He was startled out of his light doze by papers being slammed on his desk.

"Where is she?" a voice that grated on his nerves immediately asked. He should have known that Flynn would be there bright and early. He looked to the clock and saw that it was just after six in the morning. He wanted to roll his eyes. It was too early for this crap.

"Good morning to you too. I'm absolutely great, thanks for asking," he said sarcastically.

"So that's how it's going to be, huh?" Booth just shrugged.

"You've already decided I'm guilty of being an accomplice so what I say won't matter at all and we both know it. Why are you busy wasting our time? You've decided she's guilty of murder and running and that I know where she is. You can't be stupid enough to think that I would tell you where she is if I was an accomplice and if you actually used your brain and realized that I really do have no clue where she is then you wouldn't need to be asking anyway. Let me save you some time… 'Where is she?'" he said, attempting to mock Flynn's voice, but butchering it very nicely by giving it a whining sound. "'I don't know'," he said in his real voice. "'Bull shit. Where is she?'," he said going back to his mocking voice… "Should I continue? Or have I basically got it covered." Flynn stood there and he could see that he was fuming. He was fairly pleased with himself for annoying Flynn that quickly. It normally takes him a little longer to annoy someone that much. He saw Flynn's mouth moving, but just ignored him and started looking at the screen of his computer. He saw an email from Cam with the subject saying urgent and saw that she had sent it yesterday around seven that night, probably sometime after they had gotten back to the lab. He clicked on it while still tuning Flynn out.

_Booth,_

_Hope you're ok and get this quickly. After Flynn got to your house with the warrant and him and Wendell went to check out your car I called Caroline. I figured she may be able to find some way to help you since Flynn's convinced you're an accomplice. Trust her. She'll know what she's talking about hopefully. Hopefully you'll get this before seeing her, but if not I hope that her idea is a good one and that you listen to her. Wendell and Flynn got back from taking a look at your car earlier and only one set of fingerprints were found on the battery. Yours. I'm sorry. Wendell tried to explain to Flynn that it didn't matter, that the battery would have been too hot for you to unplug after you got there and it must have been done while you were inside the church, but Flynn wasn't listening. He doesn't care and decided you dismantled the car yourself. Sorry. He's ignoring evidence. We also found things in your home that we're attempting to run and find out more about. I know you're off the case but I'll still keep you updated. Take care of yourself and call if you need anything at all. My door's always open._

_Cam_

_P.S. Don't let Wendell near Flynn alone. We may have another murder to solve if we do and this time the murderer wouldn't be caught even if we had evidence._

Booth couldn't stop the brief chuckle from escaping as he read and reread the P.S. a few times.

"Something funny, Booth?" Flynn asked, raising his eyebrow.

"No, don't worry about it. You just might want to deal with the squints from the lab by phone only though while you're working with them. It seems that I'm not the only one you're good at pissing off." He clicked out of the email before Flynn could demand to see it. "Was there something else you wanted to accuse me of or am I free to go since you had me dragged here yesterday and didn't have the decency to show up until now?"

"Oh, good, Cherie. You're still here," Caroline said coming into the office. Booth looked at the clock and saw that it was just after eight. He was impressed with how long Flynn kept talking without realizing that he was being ignored. He hadn't realized it had been that long and must have completely spaced out for a while. He was beginning to think that Flynn really needed to consider a career change.

"You're here early, Caroline. What's up?" he asked, confused as to why she was back so early.

"I got those papers signed by the judge late last night… or early this morning if you want to be technical... and let me tell you, Seeley Booth, you owe me big time. He was not happy with that late night house call."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Flynn demanded.

"Booth had me bring some papers to his office filing for full custody of Christine and charging Dr. Brennan with kidnapping her since he has no idea where they are and doesn't support it at all, right Cherie?" He stared at her, temporarily stunned into silence at how quickly the lies rolled off her tongue.

"Uh… Yeah… um, thanks," he said, making to reach for the copies of the forms. Flynn snatched them first though, causing Caroline to glare. He also raised his eyebrows at Flynn's boldness with Caroline. Flynn flipped through the papers quickly.

"Unbelievable, un-fucking-believable." Caroline snatched them back from Flynn.

"Rude donkey—" He snickered at Caroline's words as she handed him the papers.

"What? It's unbecoming of a sophisticated woman like myself to call him a jack-ass," she said smiling, clearly enjoying belittling Flynn. "Woops." He chuckled, but he quickly turned terrified as her smile vanished from her face and she turned her stare on him. "You owe me big for doing your dirty work of getting you reinstated too and assigned to the new case."

"What new case?" Flynn asked.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be hearing about it soon because it's bound to overlap with yours if you continue to only investigate Dr. Brennan for the murders. Booth's got his daughter's kidnapping case. Have fun. Try not to kill each other. Booth go pick up your badge and gun and call your squints." Caroline left the office.

"So, I'll take any information you have on the case and why she's the only possible suspect."

"Yeah… we'll see… I'm going to talk to the bosses." Flynn left the office.

"Leave the files on my desk when they tell you to get over it," he called after him.

He picked up the phone to call the lab, then decided to go get his gun and badge first and just head to the lab after that. He had news to break to the squints and hoped that they had something for him to go off of to clear Brennan's name and find his daughter.

Only time would tell.

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**So that was chapter 7... let me know what you think and thanks to everyone who reviews/comments, whatever you want to call it now, and has put this story on their favorites or alerts lists**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks to everyone who has put this story on their alerts or favorites list and to everyone who continues to review... they mean a lot... I'm also getting a little ahead with the chapters I'm writing so if you want an early chapter can we get it to 5 reviews for this chapter... otherwise updates will still be Sundays...**

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He arrived at the lab with his gun and badge and saw some of the squints on the platform.

Cam quickly noticed him and he could tell that she was shocked by his appearance. He realized that he probably looked like crap. Normally he would care but he really didn't have the energy to today.

She quickly came down from the platform before the others saw him to speak to him quietly. She got right to the point which he was grateful for.

"Was Caroline able to help?"

"It's complicated."

"Of course it is. Heaven forbid should anything ever be simple in our lives for once," Cam said to him. He could tell she was trying to get a smile out of him, but he didn't have the energy to fake one.

"We need to talk. There's stuff regarding… there's stuff you guys need to know and I got to find out if you got anything."

"Angela's in her office. Why don't you head over and I'll get Hodgins and we'll be right over." He just nodded and turned away as Cam headed back up to the platform. He started walking to Angela's office.

He entered the office and Angela looked up from her tablet at his entrance. He watched as her mouth opened, clearly wanting to say something to him, and then shut again without saying anything. He guessed there was something about his face that told Angela not to ask questions just yet. He sat down heavily on her couch.

Shortly after he sat, Cam and Hodgins joined them. It stayed silent. He realized he had no idea how to say what was needed to be said.

How can you tell anyone something when you aren't really sure about it yourself? He knew it happened, but he still can't quite process it and believe it himself yet. How is he supposed to tell them?

Cam took pity on him when she realized that he didn't know what to say. She started with something that should be very simple.

"Was Caroline able to help?"

"No… Yes… Maybe… I don't know… Temporarily possibly but… I just don't know…" He rested his elbows on his knees and brought his head down to his hands, running his hands through his hair. He was frustrated and had no idea if what was decided was a good idea or not.

"Ok. Booth. Just start from the top. What was Caroline able to accomplish?"

"She was able to create a case that would get me access to the evidence we have in the Pelant case that implicates her."

"That's a good thing isn't it?" Angela asked.

"Not exactly. It's good that I can get access to that evidence, but we had to make a case for Christine so that a second case could be made that would allow for that evidence to be used in that case too."

"Oh." Cam said realizing what Booth didn't want to say.

"I'm not following," Angela said.

"Brennan has to be the suspect in a different case," Cam explained. "In order to make a case for Christine she would need to be charged with kidnapping her."

"What!" Angela practically shrieked. "How could you charge her with kidnapping, Booth!" Booth's head snapped up at the anger in her voice.

"You can't possibly think that I wanted to!" he shouted back. He was now pissed off with everything. The no evidence, the no Christine and Brennan, Flynn, Pelant. He saw the shock on her face at his outburst. "Sorry," he apologized. He was about to say more but she beat him to it.

"No. Don't, I shouldn't have gotten so upset. You need to be on the case and Caroline thought this was the way to go. We wouldn't be in this position if she trusted us in the first place."

"What else happened?" Cam asked, knowing that there was something else he wasn't saying.

"That charge was only going to open a new case. There was still the problem of me being suspended and the fact that Flynn decided that I knew where they were." He squeezed his eyes shut and brought his right hand up, pinching the bridge of his nose against the headache and stress that this case was giving him. "We had to prove that I had no idea and that I clearly didn't support the decision." He brought his hand down from his face and opened his eyes to look directly at Cam. "I had to file for full custody for reckless endangerment." He heard Angela gasp. Before she could start yelling at him again he continued with what he was saying. "It gets worse though. Caroline then tells me after the judge signs it that it will probably be very difficult if not impossible to reverse the decision." He squeezed his eyes shut again to avoid the gazes of the squints. He didn't want to see what their reaction was to his news. He knew it would be one of two things, complete fury that he would sign the papers and hurt Brennan like that or pity that he got forced into doing that to be able to get his job back. He was guessing that their reactions were going to be leaning more toward the former, but he didn't want to see either one of them.

"How—" Angela started to yell again, but he cut her off again.

"How could I?" He asked sarcastically. "How could I be so heartless as to file for custody so that I had the possibility of getting them back?"

"You—" This time Angela was interrupted by her husband.

"Ange, What if I had to run with Michael and we didn't tell you because of Pelant and we left you behind and you were officially off the case because of some stupid bureaucratic reason? You can't tell me that you wouldn't do anything necessary to get back on the case and try to get us home even if it may make things more complicated when we return. While I may be pissed too that he did it, he really didn't have a choice unless he was just going to sit on the sidelines."

"He is in the room you know and can hear you," he reminded Hodgins. He turned his attention back to Angela. "She chose to leave me behind and not even give me the option of going with them. She knew I was suspended and should have known it wouldn't have mattered if I knew where they were or not and that Flynn would decide that I know where they are. She should know me well enough by now to have also known that I would get myself access to the evidence and case somehow. Now, what did you guys get from the sweep yesterday?" he asked, not feeling the need or desire to try to justify the actions he was forced into taking to them; not even sure if he was even partially ok with what he was forced into doing either. He just knew that he needed to get back onto the case and Caroline was able to get him that. The rest he figured he would figure out as he needed.

"Angela," Cam said, looking for her to tell him about the footage that was uncovered.

"We found Pelant on the security cameras of your house going into the nursery room and your bedroom too, but the footage cuts out. I'm trying to see if there is a way to recover it but have so far been unable to get it back. I have no idea what he did to erase it."

"After we found that, we did a full sweep of both rooms, bomb squad searching for bombs, the whole nine yards. We came up empty for all of it. We have no idea what he did in either room or if anything was taken. Unfortunately the techs basically tore your house apart looking for evidence so we won't know if anything was out of place either because they didn't put everything back exactly where they were. The good news is that we didn't really find anything new to implicate Brennan in the murder, but we also only have Pelant on the camera and that isn't enough to make him a suspect in the murders that Flynn decided Brennan committed," Cam told him. He nodded.

"As much as it kills me to say it, it's good that you didn't find anything to clear her and I knew you weren't going to find anything to implicate her anyway."

"Why is not clearing her name a good thing? I thought we wanted to clear her to get her home."

"Yeah, but Pelant's good. I'm sure he's still got ways of trying to track her and follow her. It may take him time but he can get to her if he really wanted too. We have to get Pelant first because if he thinks that he's a suspect he'll go after her. I'll only have access to the evidence of the Pelant case if it implicates her. Was anything else found?"

"No. We're stuck here. And we're getting crap with what we do have. I'm sorry, Seeley. We are trying."

"Right," he said standing and looking like he was getting ready to head to the door.

"Where are you going?" Cam asked.

"The house. See if I can figure out if he did something." Cam nodded as Hodgins left the office to get back to analyzing the little bit they did have.

"Be careful," she told him. He nodded as she left. He went to walk out the door, but stopped as he heard Angela call his name. He turned back around.

"What's going to happen when she comes home with everything?" she asked him. He just shook his head.

"I have no idea." He left before she could question him further. He didn't really want to go back to the empty building that he used to be able to call home, but he didn't have much of a choice.

He needed to know what Pelant did to his daughter's room and the master bedroom.

He just hoped it wasn't anything too bad.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to everyone who reviews and everyone who put on their favorites list. I will also not have internet access from Wednesday for a little over 2 weeks probably... I'll post the next chapter when I have access... unless I get 5 reviews for this chapter before Wednesday and would be able to give you an early update...**

**Hope you're enjoying the story... let me know what you think! I'm also hoping to have this completed by the season premier *cross fingers* no promises though.**

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He walked up to the front door and unlocked it walking in and shutting and locking the door behind him. He could practically hear the silence. The once inviting home felt cold and dark even though the sun was shining brightly through the windows. He quickly saw how the techs tore through the place and haphazardly put it back together to at least look partially normal. He didn't really care about that right now either though.

In fact, he didn't even really want to be here in the first place. He knew he had to be though. He had to figure out what that freak did in the master bedroom and nursery. He knew he would have done something. The question was what. What was so important for him to do to break into the house? He knew that Pelant wanted them to know he was there because if he hadn't he would have done something to all of the footage so that he wasn't seen at all. Pelant wanted them to know that he was there. He just had to figure out why. Did he do something in the master bedroom or nursery? Did he cut out that part of the video because he didn't actually do anything and just wanted to make them paranoid? He didn't know but he had to find out.

He didn't know where to start: the master bedroom or the nursery. He really didn't want to go into either. He knew it was going to be painful and empty. He also knew though that he had to figure out if Pelant did something. He was fairly sure that he would have done something because he wasn't one to do something without a plan. He just needed to figure out what it was.

He decided to start with the master bedroom. He knew going into each was going to be painful but he figured going into the empty nursery, when he had no idea when his daughter would be back in it and if she would still be small enough for the crib when she was back with him, would be worse.

He started moving away from where he had stopped at the front door and headed up the steps. He didn't really bother looking around the rest of the place. He felt uncomfortable there alone and just wanted to get out. He figured while he was in the master bedroom that after he searched the room he would pack up a couple of suits for him and crash in a hotel room until this mess was complete. He figured he'd need to do laundry a lot more often, but he really didn't want to stay here alone or come back alone either.

He went to the master bedroom first and walked in since the techs had left the door open. He shut it behind him, figuring he'd want to check behind the door later anyway. Even with how spacey the room was he felt cramped and out of place being there alone. He wanted to look through the room quickly but knew he had to be thorough. He stood in front of the door, letting his eyes scan the room.

"Ok, think Booth. You're Pelant… Ok. You aren't really 'cause then you'd be in the process of kicking your own butt right now and that wouldn't be fun… and now you're talking to yourself. You're starting to lose it, Booth. Focus. Think like Pelant. What would he do here? He wouldn't make it obvious… He didn't know Brennan was going to run and thought she was the biggest threat to him… But he knows to get to her he would have had to go through him." He looked around the room and decided to start with the closet figuring it would be the easiest place to start and probably the least likely to have been tampered with, unless he rigged the light bulb to explode or something when it was turned on. He also figured he could grab a couple of his suits while he was there and dump them on the bed so he could quickly pack and get out of there after he looked over the place.

He went over to the closet and turned on the light, stepping back just in case. The light clicked on, but he waited a couple of moments just to make sure it wasn't on a delayed reaction.

After he figured it was safe, he went closer again and started looking through the closet. He could tell that the techs went through the closet because it was a little less organized, but it wasn't too bad. He looked carefully and didn't think anything was missing or added, but he also checked the pockets of the clothing that had pockets just to be on the safe side. He turned up empty then too. He grabbed some suits from the closet and went and laid them on the bed. He sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, feeling drained and attributed it to the lack of sleep he had been dealing with and the stress of the cases. After a couple of minutes, he decided that he had to get up and keep working.

He decided to do the dresser next. He bent over to look in the drawers. He looked through those carefully too and didn't think he saw anything missing again or anything added. He took out some clothing and boxers for him to pack and straightened up. He instantly felt as if the room was spinning. He put his hand on top of the dresser and waited for it to pass. He didn't think anything of it, figuring it was a combination of his tiredness, stress, and the fact that he hadn't really eaten anything in a while. He made a note to get something to eat after he went through the rooms and called Cam to let her know if he found anything. He put the clothing on the bed as well.

He made his way mechanically through the rest of the room, attempting to distance himself and look for anything new, out of place (or more out of place than it would be if it was just moved by the FBI techs), or anything missing. He was getting more and more tired and decided that he would postpone his food run and that after he checked over the nursery and called Cam, he would check into a hotel close by to try to sleep for a few hours. He'd get food after.

He worked his way through the room and bent over to open the draw of the night table with the clock. Again, nothing looked out of place or to have been hidden. He came to the conclusion that Pelant just came in there to make them paranoid.

He straightened again and the same sense of dizziness washed over him again. He had to hold onto the night table to keep himself upright. He also decided he would call a cab to get him to the hotel figuring driving wasn't the smartest of options.

After the dizziness passed, he started to head to the door.

As he was walking to the door a bout of dizziness hit him again, but this time it was joined by an intense nausea as well. He collapsed down onto the ground, next to the bed, smacking his head on the framing of the bed as well.

He laid there for a moment, completely stunned and disoriented. He tried to pick himself up after a few minutes and made it up partially before his arms gave out and he smacked his head on the framing again.

He lost consciousness as he his body hit the floor again.


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to everyone who reviews and everyone who put on their favorites list. I will also not have internet access from Wednesday for a little over 2 weeks probably... I'll post the next chapter when I have access... unless I get 6 reviews for this chapter before Wednesday and would be able to give you an early update...**

**You guys are awesome with the reviews... sorry I didn't get it up as soon as the 5th review came in but this is the first chance I've had to get it up.**

**Hope you're enjoying the story... let me know what you think! I'm also hoping to have this completed by the season premier *cross fingers* no promises though.**

* * *

She came into Angela's office a while after he had left the lab. She skipped the pleasantries.

"Have you heard from Booth?" Angela looked up from her computer.

"No, Cam, I haven't," Angela said, setting her tablet down. "I'm probably the last person he'd call anyway right now after I jumped down his throat about the situation with Bren."

"Come on. You should know him better than that by now that he just wants to get them home so if he has something he'd call whoever it was that would be the best to look over something."

"I thought you said he was going to call you though after getting to his house and going through the rooms himself. If he hasn't he's probably still looking through the rooms."

"Angela, he left about seven hours ago. It shouldn't take him that long. I've been calling his phones for the past few hours but haven't gotten him. The phones keep ringing and then going to voicemail. Initially, I was hoping that he finally fell asleep 'cause it was clear when he was in here before that he was at his limit, but now I'm getting worried. I'm gonna head over to the house and see if he's still there. I know it's late but can you and Hodgins stay here just in case?"

"You think something happened," Angela said, not making it a question.

"Yeah, I do."

"We'll stay, but Michael needs to be in my office then. He's already spent too much time in day care today since I didn't realize how late it had gotten."

"Fine. I guess I can live with that. Just make sure he doesn't spit up on anything important." She turned and started to leave the office.

"Cam!" Angela called after her. She turned back around. "Call us when you find him." She nodded; she had planned on it anyway. She quickly left for her car to get to the house.

Ooooooooo

She pulled up in front of the house and didn't like the fact that she was parked behind Booth's SUV. She hadn't realized before that point that she had really been hoping that it wouldn't be there because then that would have probably meant that he hadn't found anything and had just forgotten to call. She was worried about what the presence of his vehicle meant. Was he still in the house? Did Pelant get to him before he went in and…

She didn't want to finish that thought.

She climbed out of her car and got out her bag of equipment just in case. She was worried that she was going to need it.

She went up to the front door, then realized that she had no way of getting in. She didn't want to knock because she didn't know what to expect. She didn't know if he was inside or in danger and she didn't know if Pelant had gotten in there and gotten him.

She decided to try the door just in case. She put her hand on the doorknob and twisted carefully and slowly.

She was able to open the door and did so slowly, hoping the entire time that he had just been really out of it when he got here and forgot to lock the door after he went inside.

She quietly went inside, shutting the door slowly and quietly behind her. She wished she had brought a gun with her just in case but she hadn't thought to do so. She quickly let her eyes survey the area around her and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary or out of place.

She carefully made her way up the stairs with her bag and walked down the hallway, opening doors as she went slowly and carefully. She didn't want to startle him if he had just gotten distracted being back here or if he had fallen asleep and she didn't want to startle a possible intruder either.

She made her way slowly down the hallway and eventually made it to the nursery and master bedroom. She decided to check the master bedroom first, figuring that the nursery would be the hardest spot for him to go into right now and wanting to give him a few more moments alone if he had just zoned out in there.

She opened the door and pushed it all the way open, slowly. She slowly made her way inside and was looking around. She didn't see anything abnormal to start with but as she moved further into the room she noticed a shadow that looked like it was coming from something on the other side of the bed.

She went over to the other side of the bed quickly but carefully and found him face down on the floor unconscious.

She quickly got to her knees next to him and rolled him over carefully. She quickly noticed the large gash on his forehead, but didn't pay much attention to that for now in order to check his pulse. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found one. It was a little slow, but it was steady. She opened her bag to get out some of the medical supplies she had in it to take care of the gash.

The bag also contained detectors for different things. She was surprised when she started to hear one go off. She quickly dug through the bag and found it was one for dangerous gases.

"Shit." She knew she had to get them out of there, but had no idea how to do so. "Booth!" she yelled, shaking him gently. "Come on!" She got no reaction from him at all. She knew they had to get out of this room and hoped the hallway was going to be enough for now because she knew there was no way that she was going to be able to get him down the stairs alone.

She grabbed him under his arms and dragged him to the door. It took her a couple minutes but she eventually got him into the hallway and shut the door again, hoping that it would keep the gas at least somewhat contained. She didn't know if it was going through the entire house and just hoped it wasn't.

She quickly got out her cell phone and called for paramedics. She also called Hodgins to get him over here to bring a scanner to find out exactly what gas was in that room if possible. She then went to the bathroom and grabbed a towel to press to the gash on his forehead since she had left the bag with the medical supplies in the bedroom and didn't want to retrieve it.

She just hoped that the paramedics and Hodgins got here soon so that he could get help and that hopefully they could discover what Pelant did and what gas filled the room.


	11. Chapter 11

**Ok… so I have the entire story hand written so I will have it all posted by the season premier… there are 11 chapters including the epilogue (this also counts todays chapter) left so I have planned now to update every 4 days or so (including today) (August 5, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, September 3, 7, 12, 16)… at least those are the days I will definitely be updating… I will still keep what I've had going for the last few chapters going too though so if reviews increase by 1 after my top amount for a chapter I will update early but I'll only do that if it does increase because then I'd be skipping sleeping some for you guys…**

**So we're looking for 6 reviews for an early chapter this time...**

**Let me know what you think!**

* * *

The next thing he was aware of was a beeping sound and something over his mouth and nose. He realized that it was from a heart monitor and an oxygen mask. His head felt like an elephant had a terrific time dancing on his skull.

He couldn't place what had happened to him either. The last thing he remembered was entering the master bedroom.

Apparently he found something in the room that was not good. Question was who found him?

Obviously it wasn't Pelant because he wouldn't be in the hospital, but no one would have really had a reason to go looking for him. Unless he was gone for a while.

He opened his eyes and quickly squinted them again from the harsh light that assaulted his vision. He heard movement next to him but didn't dare to completely open his eyes again.

"Booth." He recognized Cam's voice. "I turned down the lights. Try opening your eyes again." He cracked one eye open and when he found that it didn't make his skull want to crack open he opened the other. "Welcome back, Big Guy." She took the oxygen mask off his face. "How are you feeling?"

"Like something trampled over my head," he said in a scratchy voice trying to sit up. She pushed him gently back onto the bed and pushed a button to get the bed into a more upright position. She then held a cup with water and a straw up to his mouth. "Thanks," he said wincing slightly at how loud his voice seemed to him. He ignored it. "What happened?"

"What's the last thing that you remember?" He thought more carefully, trying to remember what he did after entering the bedroom. He was still coming up blank.

"Going into the bedroom."

"Were you doing anything going in?" He thought back.

"I think I might have been talking to myself, but I'm not sure. Why?" She just nodded.

"That makes sense." He just looked confused. She explained what she meant. "There was a gas filling your room. After getting you out I shut the door to try and contain it as much as I could. I called for help and for Hodgins to come to get a reading on the gas. I also had to call the FBI later to report it so Flynn knows too unfortunately and shockingly isn't pointing this to Brennan so you aren't going to have access to that evidence officially, but since it's your place I'm telling you anyway. When the paramedics got there they took samples of your blood to test it and send to the Jeffersonian for us too. There was a really high level of carbon monoxide in your system and you had a case of carbon monoxide poisoning when you were brought in. You've been on the oxygen mask long enough, but they wanted to leave it on while you were still unconscious. Hodgins found that the highest concentration of it was by the alarm clock and brought it to the lab. It wasn't your alarm clock. Angela's been going over it and there was some sort of mechanism in it that was like a fan to push the carbon monoxide out of what looked like the speakers of it. She also found a device in it that was programed to open those speakers at a certain cue. She hasn't figured out what the cue was, but I'll guess it was something you were saying when you entered the room." He looked confused. "What?"

"We have a detector in every bedroom just to be safe."

"We saw them. Somehow Pelant was able to disable the one that was in your room but make it look like it was still working. We checked the one in Christine's room and Parker's room too just in case and those were still working fine." He just nodded briefly and winced when it made his headache worse. She saw the wince. "When you fell you bashed your head on the bed, twice it looked like. You needed a couple of stitches and have a minor concussion, but your head will probably be pounding for a while."

"How long was I out for?" She looked at her watch.

"Well, it's just a little after noon now so—" She cut herself off when she saw him pushing himself up. "What the hell are you doing!" She tried to push him back to the mattress as he was moving to unhook himself from the monitors, but he resisted.

"Come on, Cam. I've been down long enough and need to get back to work." She sighed, knowing that he was going to keep pushing.

"Look let me go talk to your doctor, and we'll see what he says." She left the room before he could respond. He decided that he'd wait and see what she said when she comes back and at that point if still necessary to fight her and get out of here anyway. He was starting to get antsy when it seemed like she was taking a long time. She came back in about ten minutes later.

"Let me just say, he is really not too happy at the moment, but he's going to check you over while I sign your discharge papers and bring my car around front." She saw him moving to get up and raised her hand. He got the message to freeze. "He's going to be explaining some things to you when he comes in about possible future side effects from the poisoning and concussion. I know you already know the concussion ones just humor him and pretend to listen. If you experience any of them he wants you to get checked out. He also doesn't want you falling asleep before tomorrow night because of the combination of the poisoning and concussion so he doesn't want you alone tonight either." He didn't like the evil grin that made an appearance on her face at this point. "So, I'll be stuck baby-sitting you so that you don't fall asleep." Her grin only got wider at this point. "I figure we can do a whole musical chick-flick type movie night at my place. Michelle is going to be at a friend's tonight." He chuckled slightly

"You know if you wanted an excuse to buy a new TV, you really don't need me to shoot it. Just buy a big screen and blame it on Paul. All guy's love big screens," he told her smiling. She laughed moving to the side of the room and tossed a bag onto the foot of the bed.

"Clothes for after he checks you over. I also bought a pair of sunglasses for you down in the gift shop. They're in there. You're probably going to want them with the concussion when you go outside and probably in the Hoover too. You owe me five bucks for them too by the way. I'll meet you outside with the car and take you to the Hoover and pick you up later. We can retrieve your SUV tomorrow from your house." She turned to leave the room and started walking out. She remembered something though and turned back around. "And just deal with the wheelchair. It's hospital policy." She then turned and left the room.

The doctor came into the room introducing himself and asking the standard questions. He answered, kind of on autopilot and not really noticing what he was answering. He was putting on a good show for the doctor of paying attention, but his mind was already at the office and wanting to go over the files that should be on his desk from Flynn. After the doctor left he dressed quickly in jeans and a shirt and tried to get out before the wheelchair got there. The wheelchair made it with one of the nurses before he could sneak out though and he ended up getting in it, grumbling the entire time about his legs not being broken.

Cam was just pulling up the car when they made it to the front of the hospital. He put the sunglasses on as the sun was too bright. He quickly got out of the wheelchair calling a halfhearted thanks over his shoulder and got in the car.

"Little eager, are we?" Cam asked.

"Just drive."

"Right." She pulled away from the curb and the trip to the Hoover was made in silence.

Oooooooooo

He got out of the car once they got there.

"Give me a call when you want to be picked up or I'll be out here at eight to pick you up. I don't care if I have to drag you out myself."

"Thanks, Cam." He figured he could always bring the files with him and continue working at her place and not to argue for more time at the office. "And thanks for the glasses too." He shut the door and quickly went inside.

He ignored the other agents as he made his way quickly to his office, leaving the glasses on. He so hated the fact that Cam was right that the lights were going to kill his head even more. He was definitely not going to admit that to her though. He'd never hear the end of it.

He quickly got to his office and shut the door behind him. He didn't turn on the lights. It was bright enough in his office from the sun and lights shining through the windows. He walked around the desk and sat at his chair. He saw the files that Flynn brought by were on the corner of his desk. There was an envelope in the center of his desk that caught his attention. It just had his name on the envelope.

He opened it and pulled out what was inside.

It was a photo. A photo of his baby's crib.

He turned it over and found something written on the back. He didn't like what it said at all.

He picked up his phone.

"Cam, I need you back at the Hoover now. We've got a problem."


	12. Chapter 12

**Wow... so it's a good thing that I started typing up this chapter after I posted the last... you guys are awesome hitting the review goal for this chapter in like 5 hours... thanks for all the reviews... as promised here's an early chapter for hitting the target...2 chapters in 1 day...so much for my schedule since now at least the last date won't be needed :) ... can we hit 7 reviews for this chapter for another early one?**

* * *

Cam quickly got to his office and opened the door stepping inside and shutting it behind her. She noticed the lights off and the glasses on but chose not to say anything. He knew she'd have comments for him later.

"So, what's up with the secrecy and urgency?" He raised the photo to her.

"I think Pelant sent it." Cam took a pair of gloves out of her pocket and put them on. She took the photo from him and looked at the picture of the crib. "There's something written on the back." She flipped it over and he watched as her eyes widened.

"We don't know if he's just messing with you." He just snorted.

"He's been ahead of us in everything and you really want to tell me that he's messing with me. We both know that he doesn't need to do that."

"So you really think…" He shook his head.

"I know it." She looked at the words on the back of the picture again.

_Just because you don't know where your family is doesn't mean that I don't._

"You realize that this does have to go to Flynn, right?"

"Yeah, but I figured call you first since my fingerprints will be on it already. No point in contaminating it further."

"You really think he left his fingerprints or some other evidence on it."

"No, but it can't hurt to look can it?"

"No. You're right. It can't hurt. I'm going to go let Flynn know about it and then I'll come back here to get you and we should head to the lab."

"Cam, I have things I need to do here."

"Booth, somehow he was able to get this into your office. He's clearly got connections to here somehow."

"Which is one reason I need to stay here. What if he sends something else? Plus it'll be easier to check the security footage here than it will be at the lab. I figure I'll start with the one pointed toward my office and head from there. See who left it on my desk first. Ask Flynn when you talk to him if he saw it on my desk when he dropped off those files for me. Then I'll at least be able to narrow it down a little too."

"What are you thinking?" she asked, knowing that he wasn't telling her everything.

"I'm thinking that right now I have to assume the worst and that Pelant's been tracking them since they drove off in Max's car, maybe even tracking that car before that. I'm thinking that Max was good at staying hidden for a while before even with a car. How with registration and license plate numbers? I doubt that they never got into a car accident or got a ticket. I've got to figure out how Max did it."

"Alright. I'll tell Flynn about the photo and head back to the lab with it. I'll be by later to pick you up."

"Thanks, Cam." She left his office. He picked up the phone to call down to security to send him the footage of the camera pointed toward his office to his computer. He was waiting for it to come through when Cam came back to the office.

"Flynn's not happy that you called me first about the photo and is going whine to your bosses, just to warn you," she said rolling her eyes. "I also asked him if the envelope was on the desk when he dropped off the folders and the idiot didn't know or he did know and just said he didn't to be a pain in the ass. Either way can't really narrow it down. Sorry."

"Yeah, I didn't actually expect him to answer, but it didn't hurt to try."

"I'll be back by later. If your headache starts getting worse stop working, Booth. You'll be able to concentrate better when the elephants stop trampling on your head anyway."

"Ha, ha," he responded dryly to her comment. "Funny. Thanks though."

"Let me know if you want me to stop by earlier." She left the office.

After she left, he looked to his computer and saw that he now had the saved footage of the security camera. He figured that he'd start from just before he came into the office and watch it backward since he had no clue what time it came in.

As he was playing the video an idea hit him to try and find Max. He minimized the video and clicked open on a search. He searched for anything on a vehicle resembling the one that Brennan drove off in. He wasn't typing in anything else. They already had the car and license plates running together for any hits, but it was time to think outside the box.

He minimized the search and went back to the video. He was coming up with nothing on the video. He was watching it closely when he noticed that between 4:30 and 5:20am the video feed completely cut out. He called down to security. They told him there was a system fail with that camera and eight others in the building at that point. He figured that they were the eight others that he walks by going to his office. He told them to get the footage of those cameras over to Angela at the lab to see if she could do anything with it and see if they were completely down or just wiped clean.

When he got off the phone, he heard his computer beep, indicating that something came up in the search.

He opened it and saw that there were plenty of hits with the weak description of the car since he didn't name the model or anything, just the color and size.

There were a lot of them that he had to look over. Most of them were for tickets for parking and speeding and crap like that. Nothing showed to be of any use to him, but he kept the search running in case something did come in at a future point.

He then started going over the files that Flynn had put on his desk. None of it really mattered to him because it wasn't going to help in finding them, but it was still good for him to know what evidence was coming up against her. He was hoping it would tell him something about Pelant or where he would go since it seems that he's fallen off the grid, but it was coming up empty there too.

Cam came to pick him up when she said she would and he moved to gather the files to keep working at her place.

"No way," she told him, taking the files from his hands. "Your brain needs a break. They'll still be here tomorrow. Don't worry, I was just joking before with the chick flick musicals. We'll figure out something to keep you awake. He followed her out of the office and to the car to go back to her place.

Even after they got inside and put on the TV they stayed quiet. Cam must have sensed that he wanted and needed quiet. He just stared at the screen, not really paying attention to what was on. He saw her look over to him every once in a while to make sure that he was still awake and he would turn to look at her confirming that he was before pretending to be watching the TV again. They decided at about five that morning to head into the office and lab and that he really didn't need to be baby sat anymore. He still had a slight headache but it was improving and he wasn't planning on falling asleep when he could be working.

She dropped him off to pick up his SUV and he thanked her for dealing with babysitting him.

"No problem," she responded. "Where do you plan on going tonight?" she asked, knowing from the amount of clothing that was on the bed when she found him that he wasn't planning on staying in the house alone which was why she put it all in the bag she brought to the hospital.

"Hotel."

"You're welcome to my guest room if you want."

"Thanks, but I think I'd rather be alone."

"The offer stands if you ever want to take me up on it for some company."

"Thanks," he told her, getting out of the car with his bag to get in the SUV.

"Booth," she called before he could shut the door. He looked back to her. "Don't shut me out. I get that you want to shut everyone out again, but I'm not going anywhere. When you want to talk my door is open."

"Thanks." He shut the door and watched as she drove off. He then climbed into his truck and went to the Hoover to continue to go over the files and hope something comes in with the search.

* * *

Five weeks and four days had now gone by and they were still no closer to proving Brennan innocent, finding where she was, or finding Pelant. He had been spending most of his time in the office and when he wasn't there he was normally at the hotel attempting to sleep, but not really accomplishing that. He would doze lightly, but never for long either. He also knew that he had lost some weight because of his exhaustion and the fact that everything just tasted like nothing to him. Cam was able to keep him somewhat grounded at least. At least once a week, she insisted on him going out for drinks with her and staying in her guest room. They normally didn't really talk, but she was still there so that he wasn't always alone. He was really going to need to make it up to her somehow for all the crap he was putting her through.

None of the evidence was helping. They still couldn't figure out how Pelent manipulated the security footage of Brennan leaving the day of Ethan's murder. The picture of the crib had no fingerprints or anything of use. Angela was still going over the cameras that went down at the FBI but was getting nowhere fast with them. She was hoping that they were just tampered with, but she was leaning more to that they were completely shut down now.

He was sitting at his desk, trying to figure out what else he could do. It was late in the afternoon. His computer beeped, indicating that something new came up with the search that he had constantly had running on the computer for the car.

He opened the search and had to smile.

He might have just found the car.

The car that fits the description, make and model unknown because they couldn't get to the back of the vehicle. No registration. The license plates also didn't match for the car. They didn't match for any legitimate car. Baby seat in the backseat. It was run off the road and found in a ditch upended on the trunk of the car in Virginia. A man was found unconscious in the driver's seat, no ID on him.

He called up to the officer who was called to the scene and spoke with him briefly over the phone asking if he could come meet with him. They agreed for him to come right up and that they'll meet at the scene when he explained that he couldn't explain over the phone for confidentiality reasons. He then picked up the phone and called Cam.

"Hey, Cam. Want to take a trip to Virginia with me? I think I just found Max."

* * *

**So that was chapter 12... let me know what you think... can we get 7 reviews for another early chapter?**


	13. Chapter 13

The drive was made in complete silence after he picked Cam up.

As they got closer to the scene Cam finally spoke.

"So, what did you tell Flynn about the lead?"

"I'm surprised you waited this long to ask."

"I figured if I didn't know anything and you had chosen not to tell him anything I could claim that I had just assumed he decided you could handle it on your own. So…"

"I didn't tell him anything. He was still bitching to the bosses about the photo when I called you anyway. Besides, my search was for Max. Not his case at all," he said smiling. Cam couldn't help but snort.

"You know he's going to be pissed."

"He'll get over it… or he'll go whine to the bosses and get transferred to Alaska to freeze his balls off," he said shrugging. "No skin off my teeth either way." They fell back into silence for the remainder of the drive.

* * *

The sun had mostly set by the time that they reached the scene. The officer was already there and he pulled in behind the officer's car. They both climbed out of the car.

He immediately didn't like what he saw. He instantly recognized the car, even with the change in the license plate and with the front of the car almost completely crushed in. He also saw why the make and model couldn't be determined. The car was in a ditch at what was basically a 90 degree angle to the ground.

He quickly made his way to the officer who was standing looking over the scene.

"Jacobs?" he asked as they approached.

The officer looked over to them as they got closer. "You must be Agent Booth."

"That's me," he said as he shook hands with the other man.

"So, what can I do to help you?"

"I'm looking for some information about the situation with this crash. I think it could be linked to a case I'm working on. You said that a man was found in the driver's seat?"

"Yeah. He was taken to the hospital unconscious. No ID on him. I called the hospital after I got your call and he's still out."

"You also said there was a baby seat in the back?" he asked as he took out his phone and squinted at the glow of the screen.

"Yeah."

"No baby though? No one else in the car?"

"Nope. Just the man. Looks like it was just him in the car, too."

"This the man?" he asked, holding the phone, with a picture of Max on the screen, out for him to see.

"Yeah. I think so anyway. His face was fairly swollen and cut up, but I'm pretty sure that's him." Cam's cell started to ring.

"It's Angela," she explained as she moved away to take the call. He turned his attention back to Jacobs.

"And you're positive there was no sign of anyone else in that car?" he asked again, just to be sure.

"There was nothing to indicate that anyone else was in the car. All the doors were locked when we got here."

"When was he found?"

"This morning, but this road isn't traveled too often so we don't know how long he's actually been out here for. It could have been a while. Docs couldn't confirm either."

Cam came back over. "Angela says that the cameras were definitely completely shut down so she can't get anything. She was able to find though that they were shut down by someone on the outside, but she couldn't locate where because it bounced to too many servers." He nodded to her.

"So, is this related to your case?" Jacobs asked.

"Yeah. Can we just leave it at that and you not ask any other questions please? My case sounds bad and it's actually much worse than how it sounds."

"Sorry man. To give you the info I got to know how it relates to your case."

"The man was traveling with a woman and her daughter. The daughter was kidnapped. My case is to get the daughter home to her father. It's also tied in with another case as well but that doesn't deal with the daughter," he said, trying to leave out as much as possible. "I need to find out where the woman and her daughter is and he's my best possible lead right now. So, are you willing to help me or do I need to go to your boss and inform them that you are hindering two federal investigations?"

"Case is all yours if you can ID the guy. Nothing to charge him with anyway and clearly he was run off the road so it probably has something to do with one of the two cases anyway. Less paperwork for me. I can live with that."

"Great. So what hospital is he at?"

"I can't hand you the case until you do confirm that it is him, so if you want you both can check into a hotel for the night and meet me at the station in the morning and I can take you both over to the hospital."

"Nah. We really got to get there tonight. We believe the daughter is in danger so time is really important. The sooner he's awake and the sooner we can start asking questions the better."

"Alright, then follow behind me," Jacobs said walking toward his car. They headed to his SUV as well.

"Little harsh, don't you think?" Cam asked him. He just shrugged.

"I have to find them before Pelant does and right now my best bet is Max. If I have to be a little harsh to get the information I need and to get to him so be it. I may not like it, but no way is he getting to them." They fell into silence as they followed Jacobs to the hospital.

* * *

When they got there they parked both cars and went inside. Jacobs had some folders with him in case the guy was Max. The officer spoke to the person behind the desk and found out what room number the man was in.

The three of them got into the elevator and went up to the floor he was on and down the hall to his room. They went inside.

"That your guy?" Jacobs asked.

"Yeah, that's definitely him."

"Here's the info gathered about the crash," Jacobs told him handing over the folders. "Good luck finding the daughter."

"Yeah, thanks," he said as Jacobs left the room. He quickly skimmed over what was in the folders and saw a lot of it was a report of his injuries and a theory of the size of the car that hit him. He looked to Cam. "Can you get this information to the lab somehow; see if it's of any use tracking Pelant?" he asked Cam as he handed her the folders.

"Can I trust you to not beat the crap out of Max while I'm gone if he wakes up?" she asked raising her eyebrow.

"If he tells me where they are no problem. If he keeps his trap shut no promises."

"Behave," she warned him as she left.

He saw a chair toward the side of the room and saw the remote for the TV on a table next to the bed. He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, turning the volume up, hoping that would keep him awake like he needed to be and that it would get Max to rouse faster. He put the remote back down and took a seat in the hard chair. If the TV didn't keep him awake the hard chair definitely would. He crossed his arms and, instead of looking to the TV, he focused his glare on Max, practically daring him to wake up and keep his mouth shut.

Yeah, this was definitely going to be a long night…

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**So that was chapter 13... let me know what you think... can we get 7 reviews for an early chapter?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thanks for all the reviews, and to those who have put this story on their alerts and favorites!**

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He ended up watching the TV because the more he was looking at Max the more pissed off he was getting. Pelant found Max and got to him. Did he find Brennan and Christine already too? Does he have them? He was sick with even just thinking about that possibility.

Cam was coming in and out, keeping in touch with the lab and what was going on here and there. He had found out from her that Angela and Hodgins decided to stay there after they found out about Max in case either of them needed to process anything quickly.

Cam was currently out of the room after getting a call from Angela. He was starting to doze off in the chair waiting for Max to wake up.

He wished his mind would just go blank for a little while and allow him to get rid of the horrible thoughts of Pelant having Christine and Brennan.

Suddenly he felt a strong punch on his shoulder and jumped.

"What happened to you swearing you weren't going to fall asleep 'cause you wanted to get him as soon as he was up?" Cam asked him.

"I wasn't asleep."

"Could have fooled me. I called your name three times and you didn't respond. I swear you were asleep with your eyes open."

"Nah. I just got a lot on my mind. What's up?" he asked, realizing that she had something important to say.

"As you know that was Angela. She went back to the day that Brennan did sign in to see Ethan and discovered that she never appeared on the footage. She was finally able to clear Brennan of Ethan's murder. She looked through the videos more carefully of both days and was able to prove that the video was tampered with and switched given the fact that she was not on the log that day and missing from the time she was actually logged in that she was there. We can clear her of the murder now and bring her home when Max tells us where she is—"

"Provided Pelant hasn't gotten to her already." He realized she had no response to that and was thankful for the fact that she wasn't promising that everything was going to be ok.

"I thought you should know first. I'm going to go call Flynn now and tell him to get to the lab now. I don't care that it's late. He'll get over it. I'm also calling your bosses and getting you the Pelant case back."

"They're never going to agree to that after I beat the crap out of him from that phone call we could never prove happened."

"Don't be so sure about that." She smiled. "Angela's been working on that too. She's been able to prove that it's fairly easy for a record of a call to be missing from a log and it to appear that there was no call at all. She also found a security camera where you were at that time answering your phone. She can't prove that there was actually a call made but between those two factors we should be able to get you back on the case. She's working on seeing if she can find any record of calls made at that time from either one of Pelant's known numbers or a disposable phone to your cell. There are a lot of calls though and it's taking time and we might still not get anything."

"I'll let you fight them on that one then. Let me know if you manage to convince them."

"I'm going call Flynn and the bosses now." She left the room again. He turned his attention back to the TV, trying to empty his mind.

He ended up zoning out again, hoping that Christine and Brennan were still safe. He was terrified that Pelant had already gotten to them.

He was brought out of his thoughts hearing a groan coming from the bed next to him.

"'Bout time," he said as he got up from the chair to stand at the bed. He waited for Max's eyes to open before he said anything else.

He watched as Max's eyes opened and wondered around the room before settling on him.

"Wha—" Max started to say before he cut him off.

"Where are they?" he asked, completely skipping over any niceties with Max. He didn't really care right now if he was in pain or anything. His sole focus was on finding Brennan and Christine. Max went to raise his arm to rub his face and found it cuffed to the handrail of the bed.

"What the hell!?" he asked.

"I'll ask again. Where are they!?" he asked moving closer to the bed and practically snarling at Max.

"They're fine, don't worry. Why the hell do you have me chained to the bed?!"

"Don't worry! Seriously! You were run off the road! I found you! Pelant's been tracking you and you're telling me not to worry!? You're out of your mind! I'll only ask one more time before I beat the crap out of you. Where! Are! They!?" He separated the last three words very deliberately.

"They're safe. They weren't with me when I was run off the road."

"Are you even listening?! Let me say this slowly so even a second grader can understand. Pelant. Has. Been. Tracking. You. And. Them. He. Knows. Where. They. Are. I. Need. To. Get. There. First. Understand?" He spoke very slowly.

"I'm sure they're fine and—" He didn't let him finish that sentence before he was moving even closer to the bed and grabbing Max's hospital gown at the top with his left hand and pulling him up slightly.

"Start talking or so hel—" he was cut off by a voice in the doorway.

"I thought I told you not to kill him," Cam said to him.

"You told me not to beat the crap out of him and I made no promises, remember," he said, his attention not leaving Max.

"I'd start talking if I were you, Max," Cam told him. "If you stay silent and something happens or has happened to them, you can guarantee that you'll next 'cause he wouldn't really have anything to lose at that point and well I don't think there would be much of an investigation into your mysterious death. Hell we might even help; make it really untraceable. "

"I'm sure they're fine and there's still the problem of you can't know where they are because you'd be an accomplice to a wanted fugitive."

"She's being cleared of the murder charges as we speak," Cam told him. "Start talking. The only charge against her now is the charge we needed to make to get Booth access to the evidence and since that one is his case he needs to find her to see what can be done with those. Start talking. Where are they?"

Max sighed and started talking. He explained to them where the motel that they were currently staying in was since half of the name was faded from the sign. He told them the room number too. He told them that he had a key to the room in his pants pocket. Cam went over to the drawer with his clothing and discovered that the key was missing. Max's eyes widened and he was shoved roughly back into bed.

"You better hope that they're ok," he said as he stormed out of the room. Cam quickly followed.

Max really did hope that they made it to the motel before Pelant, otherwise both he and Pelant were so screwed when he did find them. They were both screwed already but he knew it would be worse if they weren't safe and ok there.

He was worried about what Pelant could have possibly done if he had found them. Max knew that he would never be forgiven if something happened to them…

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**So that was chapter 14... let me know what you think... can we get 7 reviews for an early chapter?**


	15. Chapter 15

**Thanks for all the reviews for last chapter... sorry I didn't get this one up yesterday when you hit the target goal but due to some issues I wasn't able to put it up... this also may make me unable to fully honor the schedule I put in a few chapters ago but if I know in advance I will put up the chapter the day before, if not the day after... of course my schedule may also be blown out the window if you guys keep hitting the mark for early chapters... when you do that I'll get the chapter up as soon as I can... should be no later than the following day...**

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He stormed to his car SUV and was somewhat surprised when Cam got in the passenger seat but not too surprised. He looked at her.

"You didn't really think I was going to let you go alone, did you?" He didn't say anything and was grateful for her coming along actually. He pulled out and decided to flip on the lights so that he could get to the motel faster. The ride was made in a tense silence. As they got closer to the motel he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Cam lean down and pull up the bottom of her pants leg slightly, taking out a gun.

"Seriously, what is it with you squints and guns?" he asked.

"Hey, I used to be a cop," she reminded him. He just shook his head as he pulled up in front of the motel.

"Wait here while I go talk to the owner." He got out and wasn't surprised when she did as well, but he was surprised when she just waited at the door. He quickly went into the main room of the motel. He saw a man standing behind the counter and approached. Both looked ready to collapse, but he wasn't about to say anything.

"You the owner or manager?" he asked.

"Whose askin'?"

He flashed his badge to the man.

"Nope then."

"Look I'm not here about any illegal activity that is probably happening here. I was told by this man," he started to say, taking out his cell phone and pulling up Max's photo, showing it to the man, "that he was staying here with two others. He was attacked and run off the road and there is reason to believe that the two he checked in with are in danger. I need a key to the room that they are in so that if there's no movement in the room I don't need to break down the door and possibly startle an attacker."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the man told him.

He just shrugged and started to turn around. "Alright, guess I'll just have to call in all the illegal activity then so that I can do a sweep of the place. Too bad it will probably end up shutting you down permanently." He started walking away.

"Wait!" He wanted to smile at how predictable the guy could be. He turned back around and saw the guy reaching for a key. The guy pointed in the direction of the room and explained which one it was as he took the key. "I'm gonna need the key back before you leave."

"No problem if there isn't any problems anyway. Depends on the situation I find if the room becomes a crime scene or not." He left the main room and headed back toward the SUV. "Let's go," he told Cam as he took out his gun too, just in case and continued walking down the row of rooms until he got to the one that he was directed to.

He stopped in front of the room. "Stay behind me," he told Cam as he inserted the key into the lock.

He heard the lock click and pushed the door open slowly.

He stepped inside with Cam following behind him and found the room completely trashed.

He looked around the room. It was completely still. He went and checked the bathroom and found that empty too. He moved back into the bedroom with a dazed expression. His mind was completely blank except for one thought. He failed… again. Maybe she was right not to trust him.

He almost fell into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, but was stopped by Cam pulling him up by the front of his shirt and directing him toward a chair. The chair didn't look to be in that great of shape but it managed to hold his weight.

"In case there's evidence," she explained to him. "I'm going to have to call it in to get the evidence collected and sent back to the lab," she told him softly. He nodded once. "We'll find them." He didn't acknowledge that statement at all and she let him be going outside to call in some techs.

He just sat there, staring at the wall. He didn't know what to do now. Their best lead just went right out the window unless there was some form of evidence here. He just sat there, his mind empty. He saw Cam making phone calls in front of the door of the room and saw her glancing to him every once in a while but pretended that he didn't notice.

He was startled by his cell phone ringing.

"Booth," he said not really paying attention.

"We have seriously got to have a chat, Cherie, about you going out of town and not letting me know and getting the Pelant case back," the voice on the other end said.

"Caroline, now's really not a good time."

"Well, you're just going to have to make it a good time, Cherie, 'cause I'm in a foul mood. You see one of my cases from a while ago, you remember Mason Keene…"

"Yeah, your killer that got killed in prison before you could completely fry him. I'm not following why I would care about that."

"I'm getting to that, Cherie. Hold your horses… Anyway, he was killed in prison, yada yada, land was never claimed and has just been sitting there abandoned for all this time. Imagine my surprise when I get a call this morning that charges have been being made in his name on his property and for other expenses."

"And I care again why?" he asked a little testy. He didn't see why he would care about that at all.

"Because I did some digging after that. Guess who was in jail at the same time as Keene and who was in that prison with him the day he died."

"Tell me you have an address for his property," he said, realizing what she was saying.

"I do, but it's in Virginia."

"Excellent. Where?" he asked. Caroline told him the address. "Thanks, Caroline. I've got to go check this place out. I owe you one."

"I just expect your next kid to be named after my awesomeness, Cherie." He just chuckled lightly at that one, hanging up and jumping up from the seat.

"CAM!" he shouted.

"What—" she started to say, worried at his loud shout, but she cut herself off when she saw his hand raised.

"You hear that?" he asked. It was a really muffled sound that he was hearing.

"Yeah, what is that?"

"No idea." He could tell that it was coming from one of the drawers of the dresser in the room. He moved toward them and started opening them carefully. There were three large draws and he started with the top. The top was empty, so was the next one.

He opened the bottom and his eyes widened at what he found. "Cam?" he questioned, not believing what he was seeing…

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**So that was chapter 15... we hit 9 reviews for last chapter... you guys are awesome since I only asked for 7... Since I only asked for 7 last time I'll still only increase it by 1... so can we get 8 reviews for an early chapter... I know you can do it since you gave me 9 reviews for chapter 14...**


	16. Chapter 16

**You guys are so awesome and are like making my week with the amount of reviews!... thanks for all the reviews for last chapter... you guys must really want it to keep coming... sorry I couldn't get the update up yesterday when you hit the mark but as promised still the following day...**

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"Is it really…?" he asked, trailing off, afraid to believe what he was seeing.

"Yeah… it's Christine," she said, gently. "You aren't seeing things." Christine was lying in the drawer on a pillow and blanket bawling to the point that her face was already bright red.

He reached into the drawer gently with slightly shaking hands and picked her up gently, quickly bringing her closer to his chest.

"Shhh, Christine… It's alright… daddy's here. I got you," he said rocking her gently as she began to quiet down. He couldn't take his eyes off of her in his arms again. He almost couldn't believe it and was half expecting to wake up alone in the hotel he's been staying in missing her even more. He didn't even realize he was crying until a tear landed on the blanket she was still wrapped in. She eventually quieted down completely and was busy staring up at him. "She's gotten so big…" he said to himself, forgetting that Cam was in the room.

"Booth," Cam said, trying to get his attention.

"Why wasn't she crying before?" he asked, not looking up from Christine.

"It's possible she was asleep and woke up at you yelling for me to come in. You need to see this though," Cam told him. He looked up and saw that she was still looking in the draw. He saw that she had moved the pillow up a little. There was a message written in blood on the bottom of the draw.

_I may have left her but I've already won._

He looked back to his daughter after reading the message and saw that she was now asleep. He held her even closer to him, without crushing her. "What do you think that means?" he asked Cam, his eyes not leaving Christine again.

"I have no idea," she told him. They saw the techs starting to pull up outside. "Why'd you call me in anyway?" she asked.

"Oh, right," he said, trying to remember what it was he called her in for before finding Christine. He quickly remembered. "First, when were you planning on telling me that you got me back the Pelant case?"

"When I had a chance, but I hadn't really found an opportunity between trying to keep you from beating the crap out of Max and getting here. How'd you find out?"

"Caroline called. I got a lead." He explained to her what Caroline told him.

"You think it's Pelant and he's there?" she asked.

"That's what I'm hoping for at least. Hopefully he'll be there or there will be something pointing us in the right direction. I just hope she's ok too. Any idea whose blood?"

"I'm going to have the techs take a sample and send everything to the Jeffersonian. Give me two minutes to instruct them. I'm going with you." He nodded slightly still looking down at Christine. "You know you don't need to keep staring at her. She'll still be there when you look back."

"Yeah, I know but…"

"It's just hard to believe," she said simply.

"Yeah…" She walked by him tapping him lightly on the arm.

"Head out to the SUV. I'll meet you there in a minute and we'll head to the house Caroline told you about."

"Yeah," he said, still not tearing his eyes away from Christine and not moving. Cam smiled a little with his lack of movement and shook her head slightly, but he didn't seem to notice. She pushed him gently in the direction of the door.

"Go," she said. He finally started moving to the SUV.

He reached the SUV and opened the back door. He was happy that he still had the baby seat in the back. He put Christine in it carefully so that he didn't wake her and noticed that it seemed to be getting a little small for her.

He just stayed staring at her for a few minutes and didn't notice Cam come up to the SUV.

"You going to be able to stop looking at her long enough to drive us there or do you want me to drive?" she asked him with a smile. He tore his eyes away.

"Yeah… I'm good to drive," he told Cam shutting the back door gently as she went around to the passenger side. He climbed into the driver's seat and shut the door as she climbed in as well.

He pulled out of the motel and headed toward the address that Caroline gave him. Thankfully, he had an idea of where he was going based off of other times he's been here. He still couldn't stop looking in the rearview mirror every couple of minutes to look at Christine while he was driving though.

"Eyes on the road, Booth," Cam reminded him with a smile when he looked a little longer than normal.

"I'm watching," he said glancing to her quickly to see her smirking slightly. He also saw her shake her head.

They quickly made it to the address that Caroline had given him. He looked to the front of the two floor house and didn't see any movement. He looked to Cam.

"Stay here. You hear gun shots or anything that sounds like a struggle you get in the driver's seat and get Christine out of here, then you call the FBI and get them out here."

"Shouldn't we call for backup now?"

"We don't know if something is happening or not in there. It might be too late by the time they get here or this place might be nothing anyway," he said opening his door.

"Booth," she called to him. He looked at her before shutting his door. "Be careful." He nodded and shut the door behind him. He moved to the front door of the place.

It was a fairly nice looking place but partially run down looking too. He walked up the steps to the porch and looked in the window next to it. He didn't see anything except dust and some furniture. He saw some foot prints in the dust on the floor however and saw that they had come from the direction of the door and went back to the door as well. He figured that Pelant had been here then and left.

He opened the storm door and saw that the inside door was partially cracked open so he pushed it open the rest of the way. He signaled to Cam that he was going in and then did so. He took out his gun just in case and followed the footprints toward a room that was toward the back of the house but toward the middle of the house too.

The footsteps led to a room with the door closed and he pushed it open slowly. He instantly saw Brennan tied with her arms behind her back to a wooden chair. Her head was bent slightly forward but he could tell she was awake. He saw her legs weren't tied to the bottom of the chair however and couldn't figure out why she wasn't trying to waddle her way out of here. He saw a screen behind her that was blank and a wooden table next to her.

"Bones!" he said, coming quickly into the room and getting close to her quickly. Her head had snapped up at his voice.

"NO DON"T!" she said panicked at him coming closer. He stopped about two feet in front of her at the sound of a click and found himself standing on a pressure plate. His eyes widened and he looked up to meet Brennan's eyes. "There's one under me, too. That's why I haven't moved." They heard a beep and he looked to the screen behind her.

"Crap!"

"What?" she asked him, partially startled.

"Things just got worse. This one had a timer."

"How long?"

"You don't want to know."

"Booth."

"Ok…" he said slowly, glancing around and ignoring her question. He put his gun away and took out his cell phone. He saw that he had no service. "Damn."

"There's a scrambler in the house blocking the wavelengths inside the house. Pelant put it in the other room."

"Great. That's just fantastic. There're two bombs that we're standing on and no way to call for help."

"Technically I'm sitting on this one… Booth, Christine's at the motel alone. I don't know where my father is. He—"

"Relax, she's fine. She's outside in the car with Cam. I tracked down your dad. How do you think I found the motel? This lead came from Caroline but…" he trailed off realizing that the details weren't that important right now.

"Do you think you can get off the chair and get out with your hands tied?"

"I don't know. But even if I got up the bomb would go off then." He looked to the table and was thinking about the possibilities of what they could do. He was struck with an idea.

"Think you can kick that table over a little closer to me without getting up?" He saw her look over to the table and study it briefly. They were lucky that even though it was a round table it had four legs to it. He thought it was close enough to her and was hoping so.

"I think so, why?"

"I got an idea but I need the table." He watched as she moved her leg out to the table and curled her foot around one of the posts. She brought her leg forward a little and the table got a little closer to him. He leaned forward as far as he felt he could so as not to set off the bomb under him. He looked to the screen again and wanted to wince with how quickly it seemed to be counting down. He was close to being able to grab the table. "Just a little more." He told her and she got it that little bit closer. He was able to grab it. "Great!" he said, dragging it the rest of the way to him. He turned it so that it was lying on its side. He was thankful that it was as old as it looked and that he was able to break off one of the legs as easily as he thought he could. He looked to the screen again and was silently panicking. They had one shot at this and he needed to get Brennan to agree quickly. He put the table to his side still somewhat balanced thanks to the tree table legs remaining.

"How much do you weigh now?" he asked her.

"Booth, now is really not the time to be discussing the extra weight I put on while I was pregnant and how much I lost of it!" she told him. He couldn't help but roll his eyes. Of course now she turns into a girl and is sensitive with the weight.

"Bones, I really don't care how fat you are… ok that came out wrong. I was asking so that I know how much pressure I need to get on the one you're on at a minimum."

"Oh." She told him and he nodded. He leaned forward again, holding the table leg in front of him. He saw that he would be able to get it under her chair and put pressure on the plate easily.

"Think you'll be able to stand up and walk backward easily."

"It won't be easy but yes, I am fairly certain I will be able to." He nodded.

"Good. Stand up. Make sure you stay on the plate though." He glanced up to the screen and swallowed hard. They really didn't have much time now. He saw that she was now standing. "Ok. On the count of three step back as I push down on the plate… One… Two… Three…" They both held their breath as they moved. They only released their breaths when they saw that his idea worked. It was difficult but he was able to keep enough pressure on both plates. "Good. Now come over here quickly." He watched as she waddled over to him as quickly as she could, being the fact that she was in a seated position. He refused to glance at the screen and distract her from coming quickly. She faced him. "Turn around. In my pocket there's a pocket knife. Reach in, grab it, cut the ropes, and get yourself out." She had begun to move as he was speaking. It took some maneuvering but she was eventually able to grab it and cut off the rope. She had sat down so that the chair didn't fall when she was released. She stood up straight once she was free. "Good. Grab the rope. Hopefully Pelant's fingerprints or DNA will be on it. Get yourself out now."

"What about you?"

"Bones, just listen to me for once. There's no time to argue. I can't hold both plates forever."

"But—" He cut her off.

"There's no time for buts, Bones. I'm standing on one that is going to explode no matter what. No matter what we do there's going to be two explosions. The question is do I get to control when they happen or do we both go up because you're being a stubborn pain in the ass by staying here and arguing."

"Logically—" He cut her off again.

"Your logical thinking is what got us here in the first place. You didn't trust me before to keep you and Christine safe, fine," he told her. "Fine, you don't want her to feel abandoned, but what are you doing now? You're abandoning her now by wasting the time on the countdown by arguing with me. You get out now and I have a better chance of making it too because then you can get in the SUV, drive until you get a cell signal, and get help out here. I know it sounds harsh, but it's true. You're killing both of us the longer you stay arguing here and if we both die we're abandoning Christine. Now will you listen to me for a change?"

"Ok," she said. He could hear the hurt in her voice and felt guilty for it, but didn't feel too guilty since it was getting her out of here and to Christine. He looked to the clock.

"There's about five minutes remaining," he said looking at her and speaking quickly. "Run as quick as you can to the SUV and start driving. Have Cam call for help as soon as you get a signal on the phone. I'm going to give it until the timer reaches 50 seconds. Then I'm jumping up over the table and praying that it protects me from the direct blasts and that the floor above doesn't crush me. The sooner they get here though the better chance I have." He saw her nod and knew it was because she didn't know what to say. They seemed to both understand that if they told the other 'I love you' that it sounded more like a good-bye and they didn't want to think like that. He saw her come a little closer to him and they quickly kissed.

"Be careful," she told him. He chuckled a little dryly.

"Little late for that don't you think… Hurry, Bones. I would really prefer to make it out of here alive." She nodded. He watched as she quickly glanced to the screen grabbed the rope and quickly left the room. After she left he looked back to the screen and watched as the numbers continued to count down.

It was the longest countdown of his life. All he could think about during that time was Brennan, Christine and Parker. He really hoped he made it out of this one alive to see them again. He continued to look at the screen.

When it got to be just before a minute he closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes and leaped toward the table and shut his eyes again, not want to see what was going to happen. If he was going to die here the last thing he wanted to see was an image of his family in his mind

The two bombs went off making the house crumble around and over him…

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**So that was chapter 16... let me know what you think... can we hit 9 reviews again for an early chapter and make it four days in a row I post? :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**I know I said this last chapter but y****ou guys are so awesome and are like making my week with the amount of reviews!... over 100 reviews... wow... thanks 'Jane' for providing the 100th... thanks for all the reviews for last chapter... you guys must really want it to keep coming... sorry I couldn't get the update up yesterday when you hit the mark, I tried to but got distracted by another finale story that I've started and didn't see that you hit the mark until I was back on the computer with the internet access, but as promised still the following day... I can tell you now though that I'm going to be busy with a deadline I have to meet today though so if you do hit the mark today again the next udate will be tomorrow morning... if you don't meet the mark then it'll come when you finally do or on the next date in my schedule (Aug 22)**

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The first thing he was aware of was the pain that felt like it was hitting him everywhere at once. He then became aware of a beeping sound and a tube up his nose supplying him with oxygen. He knew he was in the hospital again.

He was really getting sick of Pelant putting him in the hospital, but he figured it was better than the ground so he took it.

He remembered the bombs and finding Christine and Brennan. He was terrified of opening his eyes though in case of finding out that they weren't there.

He just laid there with his eyes shut, hoping that if he ignored everything long enough that it all would just disappear and he could go back to sleep. He was startled from trying to empty his mind by the sound of crying to his right. His eyes flew open as the sound was quickly followed by a voice.

"Shh, Christine. You might wake your father and he needs to heal and rest."

"He's awake…" he said groaning as he turned his head to the side to look at them. He couldn't help but to smile.

"Hey," Brennan said, smiling slightly back, taking her eyes off of Christine, but still lightly bouncing her. "How are you feeling?" she asked moving closer to the bed. He thought for a minute and realized he had no idea how to answer that question. He saw that she was also having a hard time trying to quiet Christine.

"Let me try," he said, avoiding the question and nodding toward Christine who was still busy bawling. She nodded and he went to take her but then noticed his left arm in a sling. He frowned slightly at the sling. Brennan helped to get Christine settled into his right arm and he started to bounce her lightly cradled in his arm. He was thankful that the bed was already mostly raised because it made it easier. She instantly started to settle.

"That's right. You're a daddy's girl, aren't you?" he said smiling and looking down at Christine.

"She is too young to fully understand what was going on, but she was very fussy while we were gone. I believe she missed you."

"I missed her too… She's gotten so big…" He didn't want to take his eyes off of her but she was slowly falling asleep in his arm. He looked at Brennan. He partially wanted to ask what he missed out on with Christine, but he also didn't want to know. He also knew he didn't want to discuss his weeks while they were gone so he chose not to say anything about that.

"What happened after the bombs went off anyway?" he asked her, figuring that would be the easiest discussion and the one that was going to affect them most right now considering he was in the hospital from it right now.

"We had gotten back after calling for backup probably shortly after they went off and—" Brennan was cut off by a voice at the doorway.

"She might have attempted to go charging in there to find you, leaving me to hold her back," Cam told him. "Welcome back to the land of the living again, Seeley." He looked at her, slightly confused. "You've been out for two days," she explained to him.

"Oh…" he said, not really knowing what to say to that. "And don't call me Seeley, Camille." He saw her smile slightly and knew it was because things may start to be going back to normal—well normal for them anyway. He then turned back to Brennan, realizing what it was that Cam had actually said. "Are you out of your mind?" he asked her. He wanted to yell but didn't to avoid waking Christine.

"It wasn't one of my more logical moments…"

"You think," he said dryly but not saying anything else about it since he really didn't want to get into another argument with her already. "So what happened?" he asked again.

"Help eventually got to us, but by then most of the place had already caved in. I was able to tell them approximately where you would be," Brennan told him. "They were barely able to get to you. The table only really protected you from the direct blast. It didn't really protect you from the floor above falling on top of you."

"So, how bad is it?" he asked.

"According to the doctors and rescuers, you were lucky," Cam filled him in. "You're still going to be sore for a while though. You've got some pretty bad burns on your back that will most likely hurt when you move. You've got two broken ribs and your left arm's been banged up and burned pretty badly too. It wasn't broken but the bones were bruised. They said that they found you with your arm over your head. You were smart to do that 'cause another concussion would have been really bad after the last." He glared at her for mentioning that in front of Brennan. He really didn't want to get into that.

"Another?" Brennan asked.

"Yeah, Pelant got into the house and switched out our alarm clock and the room filled with carbon monoxide. I passed out and hit my head on the framing of the bed fairly hard." He changed the subject, making it clear to them that he wasn't going into any more details about that. "You said I've been out for two days. Have you gotten anything from the motel or the house that exploded?"

"Well, there really wasn't anything that could be salvaged from the house, but Pelant messed up and his fingerprints were found on the rope that he had used to tie me to the chair."

"We ran the blood that the message was written in. It was your blood Booth. We were already able to clear you of being the one there that took Brennan to that house and left Christine there because of the fact that you were with me or at the Hoover the entire time that Max was gone from the motel and the fact that we found Pelant's fingerprints on the drawer too. We're still trying to find more evidence in the car or at the motel that will allow us to find Pelant," Cam told him.

"How did he get my blood?"

"I was thinking about that and was coming in to talk to Brennan about that too. The only thing I can think of is that he was able to get into your house for a second time while you were unconscious and get it then. Did you lock the door when you had gotten there?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did. I always do. It's a habit of mine. Why?"

"It wasn't locked when I got there and found you."

"So Pelant still has access to the house."

"I think so. You probably shouldn't return there until he's dead or caught."

"Or maybe we can use that to our advantage. I might have an idea but I'll need to talk it over with Bones privately first," he said looking at her. "As pissed as I am with Max and really don't want to see him myself right now we may need his help."

"Booth, I don't see why you are pissed with him," Brennan told him and he just looked at her in disbelief over the fact that she couldn't figure it out. He was thankful that she continued speaking so that he didn't have to explain why he was pissed. "He's hurt too and may not be up for it for a while. I've also spoken with him after you were admitted to the hospital as well. He's very irate that you handcuffed him to the bed." He looked over to Cam when he heard her snort trying to hold back her laughter. He was confused at why she was amused. She knew that he had handcuffed him to the bed.

"He was even more pissed when the warped metal key of the handcuffs was found in your pocket. It got melted in the heat of the blast." He couldn't help but laugh hard which ended up waking Christine up. He looked down at her when she moved slightly in his arm, still laughing. He watched as she stared at him and then let out a small laugh herself.

"Yeah, that's right Christine, your Grandpa Max can be very entertaining when he's handcuffed to a bed, can't he." She laughed again.

"Speaking of Max, I was walking past his room after calling the lab and he asked that when you have a minute if you could stop by cause he has something he wants to ask you about or something. Why don't you head over briefly and I'll stay here with Booth and Christine until you come back." He could see that she was hesitant about leaving without Christine, but she eventually nodded and left.

"So, what did Max need to talk to her about?"

"Oh, nothing. I actually didn't see him at all, but I needed to talk to you without Brennan around… I had to tell her about the custody situation that you were forced into signing… She wasn't happy but I pointed out to her that it was her choices that forced you to do it. Because I already knew about how you didn't want to actually sign it in the first place I've already been in touch with Caroline. She's seeing what she can do… She thinks now that we've cleared Brennan's name of the murder that we can at least get her partial custody, but since you live together it will essentially give her full anyway in everything except legal terms. She thinks that if we can prove that Pelant can hack into prison systems that we can even get full custody back for her. She's working that angle now based on the fact of how Keene was murdered in the prison system. She has Angela helping trying to trace it back to Pelant."

"Right," he said. He was about to say something else about that situation when Christine distracted him by sitting up briefly and pulling his finger into her mouth. He looked down at her and smiled. "Look at you sitting up," he said to her softly. "Does my finger taste good?" he asked her. He was startled by her pulling his finger further into her mouth and feeling something hard. His eyes widened. "Are you already growing a tooth?" he asked her in a silly voice, making her giggle a little with his finger still in her mouth. He adjusted his arm a little so that she was still supported gently. He had completely forgotten Cam was in the room until she spoke.

"Booth?" He looked to her, hearing the question in her voice. He didn't say anything, waiting for her to continue. "What are you going to do about what you had said?" He knew that she was talking about what he had said to her shortly after Brennan had left him.

"Nothing. I just have to learn to deal with the fact that she doesn't trust me and that I'll never be enough, but I can't lose Christine again."

"So you're not going to talk to her at all?"

"And say what, 'Hey, you clearly don't trust me or want me completely and it's clear you won't but let's stay together so neither of us lose Christine,' yeah that will work real well and I'll lose them all over again. I'll always love her no matter how much it would be easier not to. I just have to live with the fact that I'm still not enough for her and won't be."

"You sure that's the best option?"

"As far as I can see it's the only one. She even said to me that we aren't just together for Christine before she left. I would have never thought that we were until she said it. Her thoughts don't just come out of nowhere so somewhere she must think that is why we're together and honestly if that's true I really don't want to know." He saw her shake her head. "Just leave it be. We'll figure it out."

"I just don't want to see you hurt again. It's not pleasant."

"Then just let us figure out things as we go."

"Alright."

"My father wasn't looking for me," Brennan said as she stepped into the room. His head snapped to the door and he saw the look on her face. He couldn't decipher exactly what it meant, but he knew that she had heard their conversation.

"Hey, Cam, think you can track down someone to make a new handcuff key to get the handcuff off Max so he can stop whining." He hoped that she realized why he was asking.

"Yeah… ok… I'll also call the lab too. They wanted to know when you were up," she said leaving the room. He was thankful that she seemed to understand why he wanted her to go do that.

"So I guess we need to talk," he said as she dragged the chair closer to his bed and sat in it.

"I guess we do…"

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**So that was Chapter 17... let me know what you thought... can we get 10 reviews for an early chapter now and make it five days in a row I post? :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**I know I said this last chapter but y****ou guys are so awesome and are like making my week with the amount of reviews!... thanks for all the reviews for last chapter... you guys must really want it to keep coming...**

* * *

"So…" he started to say, but had no clue how to continue.

"Perhaps we should discuss your idea regarding Pelant first since that will probably be the easiest."

"Right, what I'm thinking is we go back to the house. We also make it public that you've been cleared of the charges and that there is enough evidence linking Pelant to everything—"

"Which there isn't."

"Just work with me for a minute. We know that it is easy for him to tamper with anything electronic so since we were able to clear you the only viable suspect is him. Nobody else had the motive, opportunity, and skills to get to Ethan like that. Anyway, once we declare there is enough evidence against Pelant then we also say that you are closing in on his location. Well, he'd want to try to silence you again and he's getting sloppy and impatient. He'll come to the house and we'll be ready for him. Which is why we may need Max. I may not trust him as far as I can spit, but you apparently do trust him more than me and someone needs to keep Christine safe." He fell silent and could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she thought it through.

"Fine. It sounds logical, but we do not need my father. Christine stays with us. We can protect her better." He didn't know how to respond. He didn't want to ask why she's suddenly able to trust him now when she didn't before. It was like she read his mind though because she continued speaking. Apparently talking about Pelant was a good way to get the conversation that he knew neither of them were going to want to have started. "It was never about not trusting you, although I can see now how you could view it that way. After talking through my actions with Cam, I have realized that my logical actions were not actually logical. I left you out to keep you in the system so that I could be found not guilty forgetting that you were already out of the system, but I also couldn't tell you because then you'd never get your position back."

"You can't possibly think that I would choose my job over you and Christine?" He watched her shake her head.

"I didn't want you to have to make that choice. You love your job and I love being able to work with you. I knew if I told you we would never be able to go back to that. I left because I trusted you enough to be able to get us home. I didn't consider the fact that you weren't actually in the system and wouldn't be able to clear me. I should have thought that through as well before agreeing with my father that running was the best option."

"I get why you thought at the time it was logical, but you're wrong when you say it doesn't come down to trust. You could have trusted me and the squints to keep you and Christine safe here. You didn't have to leave. Haven't we proven we're best together? You decided that you trusted Max more to keep you safe when you had so clearly never trusted him before. You didn't want him watching Christine before and then suddenly bam you're relying on him to keep you and Christine safe… Frankly, that's what hurts, Bones. After years of trying to prove to you that I'm here and not going anywhere and will do anything to keep you safe, you still find it's better to run and leave me behind."

"Booth—" He cut her off.

"I get why you do it. You do it because you're afraid, but it doesn't stop it from hurting. We said we weren't going to let Pelant change us and you know what… we didn't. You still ran when you got afraid and what kills me is that I didn't see it coming. There were so many clues right in front of my face about what you were doing and I didn't see it at all…" He saw that she didn't know how to respond to what he had said and he found that he didn't really know what else to say about it either. They fell into silence. It wasn't exactly a comfortable silence like they have always had, but it wasn't exactly an uncomfortable one either. It seemed to just be there. He looked down at Christine when he noticed that he wasn't getting that same sucking feeling on is finger anymore and saw that she was asleep. He gently removed his finger from her mouth and Christine stirred slightly, but didn't wake and he could swear that she snuggled more into his chest. He couldn't help but to smile. He didn't even notice Brennan watching them silently until she spoke.

"She hasn't slept that well or that long in a while." He nodded slightly, acknowledging that she had spoken, but not sure what to respond to that. She didn't seem to know how to continue either.

They fell into silence again. The silence was interrupted by a doctor coming into the room.

"Oh, good, you're awake," he said. "I'm Dr. Collins. I've been overseeing your case." He looked to Brennan. "You should have had me paged when he woke up."

"Look, Doc.," he said defending Brennan. "We were kind of discussing a couple important things here so we didn't exactly think of it." He already didn't like this guy. "She's also already explained to me my injuries so you can skip that speech and the question of how I'm feeling too cause I'm actually not feeling bad at all. Now the more important question I have is when can I get out of here?"

"Booth!" he heard Brennan scold him. It was good to know some things would never change with her. He looked over to her.

"What? I feel fine and want to get home. There's a lot we have to deal with there and the sooner it's done the better." He looked back to the doctor. "So, when can I get out of here?" he repeated. The doctor chuckled slightly.

"Let's check you over first, then we can discuss it."

"Fine, but you'll have to work around her. She hasn't slept this well in a while and she has her mother's temper if she gets woken up before she's ready to wake up," he told the doctor, hoping that Brennan had been raising hell while he was out. From the look of fear that took up residence on the doctor's face, he guessed that she had.

"Right… well…" Collins said, clearing his throat, trying to pretend that the comment had no effect on him. "We'll start with your arm, because other than the broken ribs that's where the worst of the injuries are with the burns and bone bruise. Then we'll see if we can get to your back with her still in your arm and asleep. If not, one of the nurses can change the bandages later if I'm not available. Just page us when she's awake and you'll be able to sit up."

"Ok," he said, adjusting himself slightly on the bed so that Christine was a little further away from his left arm hoping that she would stay asleep then. He watched as Collins came over to his left side.

"We can also remove the oxygen tube for you as well," Collins told him. Collins carefully removed them and he twitched his nose slightly after it was completely removed.

"I don't care how many times I've had one of those stuck in my nose. They always make my nose itch like crazy after." Collins laughed at that.

"You're not the first to have said that to me. It's the blowing of the oxygen directly into your nose and not being used to it. Now, I'm going to move to your arm." Collins carefully removed the sling that his arm was in but was careful to keep it in the same position. Collins then started to undo and remove the bandages that went all the way up his arm. He could feel some of his skin coming off with the bandages from whatever was being done to help his arm in healing and was trying not to wince at his skin pulling. After the bandage was removed, he watched as the doctor looked over his arm carefully and gently, trying to move it very little.

"So, Doc?" he asked, wondering about his arm.

"Seems to be healing as it should." Collins took fresh bandages from the stand next to him and started to rewrap his arm. He was also explaining how to care for the arm and his back properly for when they release him.

"So does that mean you're going get the discharge papers now?" he asked, looking forward to the possibility of getting home. Collins chuckled slightly as he secured the sling again to keep his arm immobile.

"Let's attempt to check your back first, then we can discuss the possibility. Can you sit up without waking her?"

He moved slowly to avoid waking Christine. As he got close to a completely upright position, he felt and saw her stir slightly in his arm. He froze, watching her carefully. He could see a look of worry cross Collins' face at her slight movement out of the corner of his eye. When she settled down without waking he could hear Collins' sigh of relief. He finished sitting up and was happy to see that Christine stayed asleep. Collins started removing the bandages that were wrapped around him, working around the hospital gown. He was quite amused by how careful Collins was being about staying away from Christine. He looked over to Brennan and saw the amusement on her face too. He lost his amusement though when Collins got down to the last layer of bandages and it pulled his skin even more than it had with his arm. He couldn't help but to suck in a breath from the pain.

"Sorry," Collins told him, trying to go more carefully.

"Just finish it up," he told him, gritting his teeth against the pain. Collins continued to unwrap the bandage carefully.

"Well, your back doesn't appear to be healing as well as your arm, but it is still healing fairly well. It may be from lying on your back so I would also suggest you lay on your side more as well. It may help with how quickly your back heals as well. Lying on your side instead of your back along with what else I had mentioned before should speed up how fast you heal and also help to minimize the pain," Collins told him as he rewrapped his back.

"So does that mean you'll sign the discharge papers?" he asked hopefully. Collins chuckled.

"You really have a one-track mind, don't you?"

"I just want to get out of here."

"Well, I would prefer to keep you overnight, but I can see that I'm going to lose that fight with you and if I don't discharge you you'd probably just discharge yourself against medical advice." He just nodded, not denying that he would probably do that. "You're not going to be able to care for your arm and back properly on your own though. Do you have someone that can help with keeping the bandages fresh and other stuff we discussed?"

"I can do that," Brennan spoke up. Collins nodded.

"I'll go get the discharge papers for you then and the prescriptions that I mentioned before that you will need to have filled to prevent infection, care for the burns, and for the pain." Collins left the room and he watched as Brennan grabbed a bag from next to the chair that she was sitting on. He was confused when he saw it was the bag from his SUV.

"Cam explained to me that you had been staying in a hotel on nights that you didn't spend at her place and that the bag was already in the SUV therefore when I asked her how you had a bag with you. She thought that you were also hoping that there was going to be a good reason to stay away from D.C. longer. She hopes you still have some clean clothes in there."

"I should have a pair of jeans and a button down in there. Can you grab them for me?"

"Sure," she told him, starting to go through the bag. He felt Christine shift in his arm and looked down at her to see her staring wide eyed at him.

"Hey, sleepy girl," he said smiling down at her. "Did you have a good nap?" he asked her softly.

"Actually, the chairs here are kind of hard and did you know that backseat of the SUV is kind of lumpy," a voice joked from the doorway. He looked up and saw Cam standing there with a grin. She came into the room and started talking. "You owe me. I happen to know a locksmith out here who owed me, so I asked him to come out and get the cuff off of Max. I managed to convince him though to mess with Max though that he can't get it and that he may be walking around for a while with the bedrail attached to him." He couldn't help but to laugh.

"Max is going to so hate that," he said laughing. "Isn't that right, Christine?" he told her in a silly voice, making her giggle.

"I don't—" Brennan started to say, but Cam interrupted her which he was thankful for because he didn't want to deal with needing to explain to her why he had every reason to be pissed with Max.

"So, did you discuss the idea you had with Brennan?"

"Yeah, and after some discussion we came to an agreement." He then told her what they decided on. He saw her face change to an unhappy expression as he spoke. "What?" he asked when he finished explaining.

"Well, first off, I really don't like the idea of you using yourself as bait, but I'm not even going to try to argue because I can tell I'll get nowhere. Second, there may be a problem with that idea." He watched as she went over to the nightstand in the room and picked up the remote for the TV in the room. She put on a news station.

The station was discussing the Pelant case. It was stating how Brennan was no longer considered a suspect because of recent evidence but that the Jeffersonian had no leads as to who could possibly be behind the death.

"That is total crap. We know it's Pelant, we just have to prove it. Who is telling them this anyway?"

"Give you two guesses," Cam told him.

"Remind me to get him later."

"Sorry, no can do. I just got off the phone with the FBI and Flynn actually. Apparently he's not too thrilled about his transfer to Alaska in a week."

"Think we can do his packing for him and forget to put in his warm clothing… Maybe I should send him some fishy smelling cologne… Bears got to love a big fish."

"I believe Hodgins is working on a spray to spray his things with to make them fishy smelling and that Wendell was helping once they found out." He just raised his eyebrow.

"And you're actually letting them get away with this?"

"Nope. I've been here with you and they've only been discussing the case with me. I know nothing if there's nothing when I get back to the lab."

"Nice," he said smiling.

"So, what are you going to do about your plan? We can't exactly come out right after this and say that we have stuff pointing to him."

"As much as I would prefer to get it done sooner, I guess it can wait a week or so. Make it seem like we uncover something in that time." Cam nodded. He saw that Brennan had gotten his clothes out of the bag. "Can you take her while I go change?"

"Do you need help?" she asked instead.

"Nah, I can manage."

"Ok." She took Christine out of his arm gently.

He got off of the bed and took his clothes, moving fairly slowly from the pain. He forgot about the gap in the back of the hospital gown until he heard Cam's whistle from behind him. He could feel the blush rise to his face.

"Still looking good, Seeley!" she teased him.

"Shut up, Camille…" he responded, still moving to the bathroom.

"Don't call me Camille."

"Don't call me Seeley," he said as he shut the door to the bathroom.

He moved slowly getting changed since he really couldn't move his left arm and needed to be careful with his back. He was also just sore in general which was making it harder for him. He knew he probably should have taken Brennan's help, but she made it clear to him that she felt she was still on her own, even if she claims otherwise, so he needed be too now. He needed to not be so dependent on her again so that when she leaves again he's not completely destroyed again. He could hear them talking, well more Cam talking, while he was changing and part of him wanted to go out there and tell her to stop, but another part of him was saying to not go out there. What he could make out of her saying was all true. They all knew it was true so going out there to stop it from being said wouldn't make much of a difference except for the fact that there could be no hiding from it on Brennan's part anymore. It would be out in the open and spoken. She couldn't just push it aside anymore.

He could hear that Cam was doing most of the talking. She was getting her point across but not being too harsh thankfully. He could hear her telling Brennan about how hurt he was and depressed he was about being left behind by her. Cam told her about the conversation that they had a long time ago about making sure that he was sure of his feelings before stating them to Brennan because if he changed his mind she wouldn't let anyone in again. Cam told her she hadn't thought that she would have needed to give Brennan that advice. Cam was telling her a few other things too, but he couldn't really make out what they were because while listening he was still trying to dress and that was taking some concentration too. As he was finally finishing, he heard Cam's final comments to her. She was wishing Brennan luck, that she knew that Booth still loved her and always would, but it was going to take effort on her part to gain his trust back that she wasn't going anywhere. He decided he really needed to make an appearance before more was said. He opened the door and watched as they fell silent. He could feel the tension in the room. He had told Cam that he didn't want her to talk to Brennan about it so decided to pretend he hadn't heard the conversation.

"Everything ok?"

"Fine," Brennan told him. "Dr. Collins brought in the discharge papers and prescriptions that need to be filled. As soon as you fill out the discharge forms we can leave. I was thinking that we could stop and get the prescriptions filled on our way home."

"Yeah, ok." He was already filling out the form. After he finished he looked up and saw the wheelchair that was in the room. "Oh, no… no way. I can walk."

"Booth, you know by now it's hospital policy. I at least managed to convince them that I could push the chair. You'll need to hold Christine, but it will also be faster for us to get out of here too if you don't argue."

He knew she was manipulating him already, but he just wanted to get off his feet already since the pain was steadily increasing the longer he was up and moving. He grabbed the papers and sat in the wheelchair. Brennan took the papers from him and handed Christine to him. She settled into his arm giggling. He smiled down at her, but then turned his attention to Cam realizing something.

"You need a ride to D.C. too?"

"Nah. I want to talk to the locksmith anyway. I'll wait until Max is released either later today or tomorrow and drive him back."

"Thanks, Cam," Brennan told her as she started wheeling him out.

"Get home safe," Cam called after them.

He didn't really get why she said that. It wasn't like Pelant had a reason to attack them now. Besides, he was probably far away from them for now. The question was where was he and when would he strike again…

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**So that was Chapter 18... let me know what you think... can we get 11 reviews this time for an early chapter and make it six days in a row I post?... I'll get the chapter up as soon as I see that you've hit the mark and I can get access to a computer...**


	19. Chapter 19

**I know I said this last chapter but y****ou guys are so awesome and are like making my week with the amount of reviews!... thanks for all the reviews for last chapter... **

* * *

They made it to the car fairly quickly and he climbed into the passenger seat carefully as Brennan was getting Christine into her car seat. He leaned his head against the head rest and shut his eyes. He heard the driver's door open and close as Brennan climbed in.

"You ok?" He heard her ask.

"Yeah, just tired and sore."

"We have a while back to D.C. You can try to sleep if you want or at least rest."

"Yeah, alright," he said to her. They fell into silence and he could tell it was because she was hoping he'd be able to fall asleep. He actually managed to fall asleep fairly quickly.

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"Booth… Booth…" he heard a while later and slowly blinked his eyes open. He looked over to Brennan in the driver's seat. "I called in the prescriptions to the pharmacy driving home and we just got here. I'm going to go in to pick them up. Do you need anything else?"

"Nah…" he said, yawning.

"Do you want me to bring Christine with me in case they aren't ready yet so you can go back to sleep until we get home."

"Nah… We'll be good," he said using his right hand to adjust the rearview mirror so that he could see Christine. "Isn't that right, Christine," he said to her in his silly voice again, seeing that she was awake. She giggled.

"Ok. I'll be back quickly hopefully." She climbed out of the car and he continued to watch Christine in the mirror. He was watching her try to stick her toes in her mouth and couldn't help but to laugh.

"Doesn't your toes taste yucky?" he teased her, making her giggle again. He smiled wider looking at her in the mirror. He wanted to reach back and hold her or touch her but that wasn't really possible with his arm in the sling and he had really stiffened up in the seat on the way back so he didn't want to get out to go to the back because he knew he wouldn't want to get back in the car. Thankfully Brennan came back to the car quickly and they were on their way.

They pulled up in front of the house sometime after and Booth's gut was instantly telling him that something was off. He looked to Brennan.

"Wait here," he told her, opening his door.

"Why?"

"I feel like there's something off," he said as he opened the backseat to get his gun from his bag.

"You're being ridiculous," she told him opening her door.

"This isn't up for discussion. Christine is here. You are waiting here too then while I check to see if everything is ok. If you hear anything you get away. My cell phone is still in the bag if you need it." He shut the door before he could listen to another protest from her.

He made his way slowly up to the front door of the house. As he got closer he saw that the door was opened a crack. He thought about going back out to the car and calling for backup but he figured it was going to be pointless. Pelant wasn't stupid enough to stay long if they weren't there and he was trying to kill them and the tech stuff he was using wasn't coming up on scanners anyway.

He pushed his way inside and left the front door open. He moved slowly throughout the bottom floor of the house and didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

He then went slowly up the stairs and quietly. He opened the door of the master bedroom first and thought that everything looked normal. He then went to Parker's bedroom, opened the door and looked around. Everything seemed to be normal there too. He then moved to the nursery and opened the door.

He instantly saw why his gut was screaming at him as the door was opened. The rocking chair had been moved directly across from the door and facing the door when it was opened. He instantly raised his gun on the person that was sitting in the chair.

Christopher Pelant was sitting in the chair. There was something in his left hand. It looked to be a button of some sort. He was also holding a gun is his right. It was pointed directly at him.

"I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to still be here. What happened? Finally figure out that you were going to lose?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. There will be no evidence of my presence left here. Your death will be a complete mystery. I underestimated what you would do to bring Dr. Brennan back. I hadn't thought that you would actually charge her with kidnapping. I thought you were too soft to do that to her. I knew you'd do anything to protect her so I never thought that you would actually convict her of something. That was a mistake but after I get rid of you there won't be an issue again. Dr. Brennan will be put in jail because the charges you filed won't be dropped and since you'll be dead the courts can fight for the strictest sentence if they chose to, which based on the fact that at the time she was a murder suspect they probably will and I will be right there as well to show how unstable she is and how I have been being harassed by her team so she would be a danger to the child if she keeps her. I will take apart your team from the inside starting with ending you. How would you prefer to die? There's a bomb somewhere in this room," Pelant told him waving his left hand with the button. "Or I could just shoot you," he said nodding toward the gun. "Personally, I think the blast would be more fun."

"Hey, idiot, you'd die too then, and what's stopping me from shooting you now?"

"I've studied you. You don't shoot to kill unless you have no choice and you know if you don't kill me in the first shot I'll hit the bomb button in my hand. As for the bomb, who said I didn't plan a contained blast with an escape route for me before it burns everything and kills you." He watched as Pelant's eyes looked over his shoulder. "Ah, Dr. Brennan, so good of you to join us. Now I can take care of both of you at the same time. Where is your little girl? It must be horrible to know that you both are going to die and leave her parentless."

"Nice try Pelant. She's not here. I told her to drive away when I saw the door was cracked open. I've been stalling you. Backup is probably on its way," he bluffed. He hoped Pelant didn't catch his bluff.

"Booth if you—" He whirled around at her voice. He didn't hear her come in. He quickly turned his attention back to Pelant before he could take advantage of his distraction.

"Will you ever listen to me? Just once. Where's Christine?"

"Downstairs."

"Well now that you've got at least one of us killed go get her and get out. There's a bomb. We don't all need to die."

"I don't think so," Pelant said. "She moves and I hit the bomb button. No way will you get to your daughter before everything is destroyed and you both are killed."

"Well you can't shoot both of us without being killed yourself, so you've lost Pelant. You push the button, I shoot. You shoot her, I shoot. You shoot at me, I shoot too before it hits me. And if you've really looked at me as well as you say you have you know I don't miss. So which is it? Who are you going to kill? Me or her? The bomb is out of the question because I'm sure with the way you think you put the bomb under the crib. Am I right?" He saw Pelant's eyes flick over to the crib briefly and new he was right so he continued to taunt him. "With how we're standing my body would take most of the hit and she can get out of her quickly and grab Christine and get out. You lost Pelant. You can either turn yourself in for breaking into the house and possibly be convicted of the murders at some point if we ever find clear evidence or you can die. It really doesn't make a difference to me. Let's face it, we also both know that I've won. The only thing I care about is that Christine makes it out safely and unharmed. You could turn your gun on Bones but we both know I'd get off a shot before you could. If you shoot me or set off the bomb you still die and Christine still makes it out alive. You lost, Pelant. Give it up." He saw that he was infuriating Pelant and hoped it was enough to make him reckless.

Only time would tell…

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**So that was chapter 19... let me know what you think... can we get 11 reviews for an early chapter?**


	20. Chapter 20

**I know I said this last chapter but y****ou guys are so awesome and are like making my week with the amount of reviews!... thanks for all the reviews for last chapter... you guys must really want it to keep coming...**

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He watched as Pelant's eyes flicked around the room. He knew that he clearly made him nervous and that he was currently panicking now.

The gun was still trained on him but he could see that it was now slightly shaking from the fury and fear that Pelant must be feeling about now.

He decided to step forward slightly and to the right, away from Brennan, hoping that he was distracted enough that he could quickly overpower him and get him in cuffs. He kind of forgot about the fact that it wouldn't have been easy anyway considering his broken ribs and arm being in a sling.

It didn't matter anyway though because Pelant caught the movement and instantly brought the gun back on him firing at him.

He quickly fired back as he dropped to the floor and saw that he got Pelant between the eyes and saw the blood splatter on the wall directly behind him and on the rocker.

"Booth!" he heard Brennan shout. He had landed on his left arm and side when he hit the floor and saw stars. He rolled onto his back and couldn't help but to look to the wall that was behind him and saw that the bullet hit it about chest height. If he didn't drop to the floor he would possibly be dead right now. He then noticed that Brennan was moving to him.

"I'm fine. Get the button out of his hand and call for the techs to get here," he said to her as he pushed himself up with his good arm. He groaned slightly. He watched as she changed direction and went over to Pelant, carefully removing the button from his hand, being careful not to touch it herself by using the corner of the blanket that was on the rocker as well. He pulled himself up using the wall to assist him as he did so.

He watched Brennan come back over to him.

"Are you alright?"

"Call the techs. We need to get them out here so that they can process this and we can put this crap behind us. Is Christine really downstairs?" He just wanted to get everything taken care of and didn't want to answer her question. He was a little annoyed when she nodded yes to his question of where Christine was.

He left the room and went downstairs and saw her in her carrier on the couch. She seemed to sense the tension because she was wide awake but just staring straight ahead of her at him.

He moved closer to her and sat down carefully on the couch next to her, gently running his finger over her cheek.

"I swear your mommy is going to be the death of me one day," he told her, speaking softly. She brought her hand up and grabbed his finger. He smiled down at her. He bent over slightly and kissed her forehead.

He heard Brennan start to enter the room.

"The FBI techs and our team are on their way."

"Good. We should wait outside just in case the bomb was also on a timer." He grabbed the carrier and went outside with Christine. He knew Brennan was following.

They went back to the SUV and he opened the back of the SUV. He put the carrier down on one side and sat on the other. He was really feeling the pain now but knew he just had to deal with it for now. He just sat there looking at Christine. He still found himself never wanting to let her out of his sight.

"Booth?" Brennan asked after a small amount of time had passed. He looked to her. "Are we ok?" He thought carefully before answering her.

"Pelant's dead. He can't get to us again, but I don't know. I get wanting to keep Christine safe and that you thought at the time running was the answer, but bringing her into the house now was not smart at all. Clearly you still don't trust me still. All I wanted to do was make sure she stayed safe. If Pelant hadn't panicked we could all be dead right now. As I told Cam before, I can't help but to continue to love you but sometimes love isn't enough. I want to say we'll be ok eventually, but can we ever really be ok if you don't trust me and therefore I can't trust you not walking out on me again? You like evidence. Well right now it's piling up that the next time things get difficult you'll leave again. Can I trust that you won't?"

"How long is it going to take me to prove to you that you can?" He just shook his head slightly.

"I've been with you how long?" he asked, wanting her to think it through herself even though they both knew how long they had been partners for. He continued to explain why he brought it up. "And I'm still trying to convince you that you can trust me. So you tell me." They fell into silence.

The FBI techs and squints soon arrived at the house. He got up as he saw Angela rushing over to Brennan and went to go talk to the FBI techs and tell them where the scene was and about the footage that would hopefully be taken in the camera in the room. He figured Pelant was planning on the explosion wiping out everything or being able to wipe the feed after he killed him using the gun. Wiping out the feed would be easier then tampering with it to begin with plus he'd then have been able to make a copy of it for himself if he wanted to relieve the success that he thought that he was going to get.

He went up to the room with the FBI techs. It was pretty clear to them what they needed to collect and whose blood was on the wall but they wanted to collect the samples anyway and get the bullets out of the wall. A few of the techs quickly found the bomb on the crib and started to work in disabling it. Another of the techs ended up bringing in the computer that stores the video footage of the camera to make a copy of what had happened during that time period.

He was approached by that tech after he finished copying that footage.

"Well, it looks fairly straight forward with the footage of what happened," the tech told him. "Everything should be cleared up quickly so you'll be able to get this mess put behind you."

He had worked with this tech many times before and knew he said the last comment because that tech knows that he really hates killing and normally would feel guilty about it and want to clear things up to attempt to move past it as quick as possible. He decided to throw him a bone this time though to show him that this time he really didn't feel any guilt.

"Is it bad that I'm more upset with the holes in the walls and the blood that will have to be cleaned off of it?" He heard the tech snort.

"I don't blame you that one. He was one piece of crap I don't think anyone will miss." He watched as the tech left the room.

He then turned his attention back to the techs who were working on the bomb. He also watched a few starting to get the body ready to be put in a body bag and removed. He sensed someone come up behind him and just stand there. He could tell that they were just staring at his back wanting to talk to him but having no idea how to actually say it. He could tell who it was, though so he made it easier for them.

"What's up, Ange?" he asked her, not turning around to face her and lowering his voice to keep the conversation private. He figured if she stayed behind him that this was going to be one of those conversations that would be easier to have if they weren't facing each other.

"Are you really going to stay pissed with Bren and let it destroy what the two of you have? She's worried." She matched the quietness of his voice.

"Ange, it's a lot more than me being pissed. Yeah, I am angry, but that's not even half of it. I'm more, I guess you could say, upset that she still doesn't trust me after all this time and that she still thinks she's alone. I'm just tired of trying to prove otherwise. She asked me if we would be ok and I had to be honest with her. I really don't know. If she's still willing to walk out on me after all this time and even take Christine too and just leave me behind… I just can't keep wondering when the shoe is going to drop again. I wished I could tell her we'd be ok, but I really don't know if we will be."

"She didn't want to leave you." He could tell that she was trying to convince him that he should just forgive her and welcome her and Christine home.

"Ange, I appreciate what you're trying to do for Bones, but I just don't know at this point what's going to happen. I want to say that it's not going to be a problem at all but I also can't help but to think I'd come home one day to find them both permanently gone again and that would completely kill me. Right now, though, we can't concentrate on that. First, we have to deal with the kidnapping charges and custody problems. I don't want either of us to lose Christine. I hope we can get back to what we had, but I don't know. I wish I did. I'm not willing to completely give up, but I'm not willing to just take her leaving every time things get difficult. Will she leave again the next time we get a case that threatens her or when she is worried about something? I don't want to keep wondering when I'm going to be stuck on my own again… Know what I mean?"

"I think so, but—" He cut her off.

"Ange, I get that you want to help but we need to figure this out on our own. Please let us do that. Now, why don't you go talk to Bones? I have a call I have to make and then I'll come out too."

"Ok, but Bren says that you should go to lie down too and that you shouldn't have been on your feet this long."

"Yeah well I didn't expect needing to call the techs here. Let her know I'm on my way down and will lie down after they leave."

"Ok." He heard her walking away. He left the room to go make that call.

The Pelant case was finally over. Pelant was dead and all they had to do was finish proving all of the murders that he committed. At least now that he was dead they'd be able to search his house more thoroughly. Maybe that would give them something.

Now all they had to do was deal with the custody issues and kidnapping charges. Hopefully this call would help.

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**So that was chapter 20 and only the Epilogue left... let me know what you think... can we get 12 reviews for a final early update and make it three days in a row I post?**


	21. Epilogue

**Thanks for all of the reviews for this story... they really mean a lot... we are at 144 now... can we make it to at least 150 for the story... you guys would make my week!... here is the epilogue... hope you enjoy...**

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**Four Weeks Later…**

He was leaning on the doorway of the nursery with his arms crossed even though his left was still supposed to be in a sling. Christine was sleeping peacefully in her crib. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was finally back in her own room after he repaired the holes in the walls and cleaned and repainted the wall. He had absolutely refused to let her stay in the nursery with the markings of Pelant in it.

He was just staring at her, wanting nothing more than to go hold her but knowing that if he did she would wake up and he didn't want that.

It was late and he knew he should still be in bed himself with Brennan but he was still having more sleepless nights than not. He would fall asleep fine but keep waking up fairly quickly, half expecting to be alone again. No matter how much he would try to go back to sleep after, he would find himself unable to do so. He would then go to the nursery to watch Christine sleep. She seemed to be the only one who didn't sense the tension between the parents.

The two of them were still friendly and got along well, but that spark that was once there just wasn't the same anymore. He wasn't sure but he also felt like the harder they were trying to get it back the further away it was getting.

There weren't really random kisses and 'I love you's' anymore. They were still close but that intimacy that had always been there was now missing. He didn't know if it was him pulling back or her or if it was both of them pulling back.

There were still the custody and kidnapping problems that they were dealing with too. He hoped that once that was settled things would go back to how they were. He wasn't sure it would but it would be one less stress that they would be dealing with. He was hoping that he would get an answer from the person that he called soon so that the entire mess can finally be finished with. He didn't know if it would help their relationship or not, but he didn't think it could hurt. They were prepared for whatever could come their way if the charges held and they would be relieved if they were dropped, but they both wanted to be prepared for the worst case scenario and not get their hopes up.

He was also hoping that maybe once they both started working again things could get back to normal. Neither of them were working right now: him because of his arm and ribs and her because of Cam. He was given time off to heal from his injuries and not be stuck on desk duty and Cam was worried about Brennan working in the lab currently because if the charges stuck anything that she was looking at in that time period could be brought into question. He had gotten to listen to her complaints about Cam essentially banning her from the lab while the charges were still in place. He was eventually able to convince her that Cam was right but she was not happy that he seemed to be siding with Cam.

He hadn't realized that he had been leaning in the doorway for as long as he had until he shifted his eyes from Christine for a moment to look out the window. He saw that the sun was already beginning to rise. He looked back to her crib to see her eyes open. She was still quiet though so he just continued to watch her.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even sense Brennan come up behind him until she put a hand on his back. He couldn't help but to tense slightly at the unexpected touch. He quickly relaxed again but she had already removed her hand.

"Couldn't sleep again," she said. He knew it wasn't a question, but he answered anyway.

"No."

"We aren't going anywhere." He walked over to Christine's crib to pick her up and put a little space between them.

"I want to say I know that, but knowing and believing are two separate things. I want to believe it but… it's just difficult…" he trailed off as he picked her up with both arms. She looked at him and giggled, slapping his cheek with her hand. She giggled more. He smiled down at her. "What? You think it's funny smacking daddy?" he teased her. She smacked him again and giggled again. "Of course you do. What is it about you and your mother that you both enjoy smacking me huh?" he continued to tease her.

"You know you should really still be in your sling and resting your arm," Brennan told him, as he was lifting Christine up high to make her giggle again. As she got higher though he caught a strong whiff coming from her diaper. He decided to use her statement to his advantage because he was pretty sure this was going to be a messy one. He normally didn't mind diaper duty but when the smell was that bad he knew it was bound to be a bad one.

"Well, I guess then mommy will have to take care of diaper duty now then, huh," he told Christine. "Here let's go to mommy so she can change your diaper so daddy can rest his arm," he continued, going over to Brennan and handing Christine to her.

"Booth!" Brennan said, laughing as she could instantly smell the diaper when they came closer. "That is not what I meant and you know it!"

"Sorry, Bones," he said smiling. "You told me to rest my arm. You should have been more clear." He was saved from her responding to him by the doorbell ringing.

"Isn't it a little early?" Brennan asked as she was changing Christine. The doorbell rang again and again and again and Christine started crying.

"I'll go see who it is," he said. The doorbell continued to ring and he was getting annoyed because it was making Christine very unhappy.

He walked downstairs and went to the front, looking to see who it was. Once he saw that they were ok, he opened the door. He was quickly barreled over by them as they invited themselves in.

"About time you opened the door, Cherie," Caroline said as he closed the door. He turned around to face her as she continued her rant. "Why aren't you dressed?" she asked him. He was still in a pair of shorts and t-shirt that he attempted to sleep in. "Go get dressed. Seeley Booth and get that lovely daughter of yours," she continued as she pushed him to the stairs. "Me, you, and that little angel have somewhere we need to be. Don't worry, I got a car seat in my car for the little angel." She was starting to push him up the stairs.

"Alright, alright. I'm going." He stopped in at the nursery where Brennan was still trying to soothe Christine from the doorbell. "Hey, can you get her dressed while I get changed. Apparently Caroline has somewhere me and her need to be."

"Where and for what?"

"No idea. I felt it was best not to argue with her as she was pushing me up the stairs."

"Ok, but she may still be fussy for a while from the doorbell."

"Well, Caroline will just have to deal since she caused it." He went over to the master bedroom to change.

He quickly came back in jeans and a button down shirt. Brennan had just finished dressing Christine when he came back in. He watched as she packed a bag with some more diapers and things for her.

He went over to pick Christine up.

"Booth," Brennan said to him, not facing him.

"Yeah?"

"Your arm sling," she reminded him.

"Bones…" he whined.

"You are still supposed to be resting your arm and you have no idea what Caroline is going to be taking you. I've humored your wishes of not letting me and Christine out of your sight for long periods of time these past few weeks. Humor me." He stayed silent and was just blinking at her back. He watched her turn around at his silence. "Booth?"

"I don't know what shocks me more. The fact that you are actually humoring me because I know you can't stand to be smothered or the fact that you just asked me to humor you." She pointed to the doorway and glared. He cringed. She was really getting that mom glare down. "You're really getting good with that mom glare…" he said. "Too good…" he mumbled under his breath.

"And yet the only one I haven't needed to use it on is Christine." She pointed to the door again.

"Alright, alright. I'm going. What is with all the bossy women in my life," he said leaving the room.

He came back a moment or two later with his arm in the sling.

"Happy?" he asked her. She was still facing away from him, packing the bag, so she turned around.

"No, it's still too loose." She came over and adjusted it so that it held his arm properly. "Now, I'm happy." She went over to the bag and gave it to him. He put it over his right shoulder so that he would still be able to carry Christine in his right arm. She was big enough where she liked being held in his arm and looking over his shoulder. Brennan went to get Christine, who was still clearly unhappy about the doorbell but at least not bawling anymore, kissed her forehead and gave her to Booth. "Do you know how long you'll be?"

"This is Caroline we're talking about. No idea. I'll see you later."

"I'll be here since I'm not allowed at the lab."

"Ok." He left the room with Brennan following behind him. As soon as he made it down the stairs, Christine was instantly snatched from his arm by Caroline.

"Hey there little angel. Your daddy is a pain in my—"

"Caroline!" Brennan warned.

"—butt, you know that." Caroline was holding Christine with Christine looking over her shoulder now as she headed to the door. They could both see that Christine was wide eyed.

"I think she's afraid of her and isn't sure if she should cry or stay quiet," Brennan whispered to him.

"Can you blame her? I'd be terrified too," he whispered back.

"You coming, Booth?" Caroline asked, walking out the door.

"Uh… right…" He looked to Brennan. "When they find my body somewhere just remember to tell them that Caroline was the last to see me alive and that she has Christine."

"That's not even funny."

"I wasn't trying to be. Caroline is scary when she's mad and apparently I did something to piss her off."

"Let's go, Seeley Booth!" He heard her call. He quickly ran out of the door.

Once he got outside he saw that Christine was already in the car seat of Caroline's car and that Caroline was getting into the driver's seat. He quickly climbed into the passenger seat to avoid pissing her off more. She pulled away from the house. It was silent for a while and he decided to break the silence which proved to not be a good idea on his part.

"So—" He was quickly cut off by Caroline.

"Nope, Cherie. You don't get to 'so' me. You're lucky I like you 'cause I don't much like being hollered at and I've had some hollering being done at me lately 'cause of you."

"I'm not—"

"Let me guess, 'you're not following' what I'm talking about, huh, Cherie. I'm talking about that favor that you called in a couple of weeks ago. You could have told me when we were signing those documents that you had a pal who was a judge that might be able to help, but nooo, not one word so he's been busy hollering at me for weeks about how we should have come to him first cause he could have made it looked like it was filed without actually being filed."

He stayed silent, figuring that he really shouldn't say anything and dig himself a deeper hole with her.

"What, don't have anything to say for yourself, Cherie?"

"I—" he was cut off by Caroline again.

"Nah uh, Cherie, you don't get to say anything," she told him. Christine didn't seem to like hearing her father getting yelled at and started crying in the backseat. "Look what you did now. You upset the little angel."

"Caroline, pull over," he told her. She wasn't. "Now, Caroline, so I can go in the back with her and try to get her to calm down from your shouting." She eventually did and he climbed into the tiny backseat. He really hated that backseat, but his daughter was more important to him than his comfort. The rest of the drive was made in almost complete silence except for Christine's occasional whimper as he was trying to calm her.

They eventually made it to the courthouse and Caroline went to take Christine until he shot her a glare making it clear that he was carrying his daughter before she sent her into another fit. It was bad enough her face was still bright red from crying as much as she had been. Caroline decided to take the bag for him instead.

They made their way inside and over to his buddy's office. The door was closed but Caroline just pushed her way inside. The judge looked up from his desk at the intrusion and smiled.

"Booth, long time no see man. How have you been man? Other than the obvious problem anyway. You should have called me when signing the papers."

"Hey, Hank," he said as Hank wheeled himself around the desk. He smiled slightly as he attempted to explain. "My brain was a little fried at that point and I didn't actually think of it." Hank wheeled himself closer and he could tell he wanted to hold Christine so he passed her to him. Her face was still bright red, but she giggled when Hank held her and decided she was going to enjoy smacking his face too. Hank laughed as well.

"What happened to her?" He realized that Hank had noticed the bright red and tear streaked face.

"Caroline hollered at me about you hollering at her. Apparently she doesn't like hearing her daddy get hollered at."

"She is still in the room you know, Cherie."

"So, I'm guessing the early call means that you have results, good or bad, for me." He watched as Hank looked to Caroline.

"You didn't tell him yet."

"She was too busy hollering at me."

"Sit down, Booth," Hank told him. He sat, figuring it must be some bad news.

"I made some calls, pulled some strings. I wasn't able to get the charges completely dropped though. Based upon the evidence, though, that has still been being processed by your lab and the FBI, I was able to get the evading justice charge dropped because of the evidence that pointed to the fact that Pelant would have been able to hack into a secure network and quite possibly have her killed. The kidnapping and endangering Christine was more difficult to work with. Since you wanted the kidnapping dropped it wasn't that difficult to drop that charge, but she did endanger Christine and it was even worse since there was currently a warrant out for her arrest. They weren't willing to overlook that. What I was able to do though is get you both full custody, but there needs to be another trusted adult with her when she has Christine and you are not with them. You can make that list later and talk it over with her to see if you missed anyone you want to add. I was also able to get them to reevaluate in a year in which case it will either continue with the current arrangement or the trusted adult portion will be dropped."

"What would that last portion mean if something were to happen to me?" They both knew what he was really asking, what if he was killed or something.

"She'd retain custody, but either one of the trusted adults would need to move in with her, they would need to rotate spending the night, or Christine would need to spend the night with one of them. They would also still need to be with her during the day when Christine is with her and not in daycare. Sorry I couldn't do more."

"Nah, thanks man. I appreciate it. You probably got us more than what we would have gotten if I didn't know you. I owe you one man."

"Don't worry about it. After you write out the list, why don't you head back home to your family. How are things with you and Dr. Brennan anyway?"

"Tense. Hopefully this resolution will help things get a little further back to normal, but neither of us fully trust the other anymore I think so who knows. It's almost become like we're just two good friends living together. Maybe we'll get back to what we had, maybe we won't but we aren't going down without fighting it," he said, writing down the list of names. He put on all the squints, Sweets, Rebecca (just in case), and a couple of the FBI agents that he trusted, like Shaw.

"Don't be a stranger. You three need to come over for dinner one day," Hank said, handing back Christine.

"I'll call. We'll set something up."

"I've also spoken to Dr. Saroyan about the results of the charges after she called me, hearing that I was looking into it. Dr. Brennan is free to resume work."

"That'll make her happy," he said smiling. "She was pissed at being kicked out of the lab." Hank laughed.

"Now go home and have some fun until you get stuck going back to work. I'm late for court, but that's alright 'cause they can't start without the judge," Hank said leaving the office.

They followed and piled into Caroline's car. He just went into the back with Christine to start. He could tell Caroline was still pissed so chose to stay quiet. They soon pulled up to the house and Caroline actually wished him luck explaining everything to her. She also warned him that the next time he called in a favor about something that she was attempting to do for him without warning her that he was dead meat. He chose to just nod.

He took Christine and the bag and went inside. He found Brennan on the couch with her laptop. She moved it to the side as he came in. He handed her Christine and told her about the call he made weeks ago and everything that had been said by Hank. She nodded.

"Well, it could have been worse," she said.

"Yeah. Are you ok?"

"While I'm not happy that I need to be watched at all times with my daughter, I can understand the hesitancy of allowing me to be alone with her and will just need to accept it. Are we ok?"

"We'll find out. We've always held before. We might not get back to where we once were, but there's no reason we can't try."

It would be difficult work and maybe they would succeed in getting back to the intimacy that they had recently found, maybe they wouldn't, but at least they had their friendship and partnership in place. That would have to be good enough for now.

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**Once again thanks for all the reviews... please let me know what you thought of the epilogue in one final review!**


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